Cody to the Left

Last time I made it out to the barn to ride I met Cody in the pasture taking a nap. That old horse has come a long way since I've bought him. A few years ago there's no way he would have let me walk up to him in the pasture while he slept let alone sit on his back like I did the other day. After I hung out with him for a few minutes, took a bunch of pictures, and annoyed him to the best of my abilities I finally put the halter on him and he reluctantly got up.

I wanted to set up a series of poles to work on turns on the haunches and forehand but we don't have quite enough poles in the barn and they aren't very long so my pattern was a little small. We did walk through it a few times but next time I'll have to make it bigger and probably video tape the session so I can see what he's doing. I tried to work him to the left as much as possible since that's the direction he has the most trouble with. He really hollows out and counter bends going left and doesn't pick up that lead of course. I thought maybe the chiropractic adjustment would help a bit but even on the lunge he wouldn't get that left lead. Back to the drawing board I guess. One good thing that came out of it was that I'm more comfortable with the old boy. It always felt like he got so worked up after one attempt at cantering but after watching Nancy ride and seeing how not worked up he really was something must have clicked for me and now it doesn't feel like he's freaking out nearly as much. So I guess one thing at a time.

Lots of Vet Visits

Well it's spring again, I can tell because my checkbook has been getting a work out. Luckily work bonuses happen around the same time as all the Spring vet visits. Cody and Axel had their usual rabies and coggins visit quite a while ago but we didn't have time for the dental work so we scheduled that for April. So now both boys have had their teeth all spiffed up as well as their boy parts. Even under heavy sedation Cody still protested the sheath cleaning, silly old man.

The nice part about appointments with sedation is that I think have horses very willing to stand still while I fiddle around and comb their tails through and clean up bridle paths and all sorts of good things that they usually don't stand still long enough for. Axel hadn't been groomed in quite some time so he had a nice carpet of hair that I was able to remove. Luckily the mud situation isn't too bad this year (yet) so I didn't have to do any more leg shaving (good thing since my clippers died while I was working on Cody's bridle path).

So the day after the dentist appointment the chiropractor came out. Some folks (Jeff) think I'm nuts for having the chiropractor work on the horses but that first time I had Cody worked on he was a changed horse. It may look like voodoo but you can argue with results. Cody had quite a bit "out" for this appointment including his left shoulder so now that he's straightened out maybe he'll pick up that left lead easier? We'll see. Axel only had a bit out and that's pretty normal for him but I figured since he's been limping around for so long getting an adjustment might be a good thing. He may be retired but I'd like to keep him as pain free and happy as possible, plus he'll still be able to take Daniel around for a while. So now all that's left is the rest of the spring shots which I pick up at the Horse Expo and administer myself.

New Shoes

Daniel and I ran out to the barn last night while Nancy was there. She didn't have a riding partner so she was just going to hand walk Cody down the road, which would be his first trip down the road this spring alone. So we went along for the walk. It was a good decision to not ride cuz wow was it windy! Cody got to try out his new boots and pastern wraps that Nancy got him. His old ones were still usable but getting to be on their last legs. They'll be good to have as spares or if we need any for his hind feet ever. After the walk Daniel and I watched for a few minutes while Nancy rode in the arena. It's funny to watch versus ride. When I ride and ask for a canter Cody seems to get all strung out and excited and it's really hard to calm him down and get a nice trot after that. But on the ground watching, he looks so lazy and slow. Apparently my perception of "strung out" is not quite accurate. Heh guess I better spend some more time in the saddle.

I snuck out to the barn at lunch again. I made another attempt to ride Cody western style. It went okay for the most part I just really need practice and I need to figure out how to get Cody moving some body parts. We did get one decent canter though. When I brought him back outside Axel was napping so I pestered him for a while ;)

Getting on Cody's Good Side

I made it back out to the barn over lunch last week and went for another ride on Cody. This time I threw on the western saddle to inspire me and I concentrated on riding with a loose rein. Cody was very happy about that. Things went really well. He did offer some cantering when I asked for a trot and he still can't get that left lead. Frankly he just doesn't like left at all, even bending on the circle to the left he's not happy about. And he still gets pretty amped up if you do ask him for a canter. I lunged him after I got off, to the left, to try and get that lead. It took him a while first picking up the wrong lead, then disuniting, before finally getting it correct. We'll have to keep working on the left. I'd really like to have a trainer/instructor come out, ride him and figure out his buttons and then give me a handful of lessons at neck reining. I think we'd both really benefit from it. Maybe that's where my bonus from work will go if I can find someone good.

I brought Axel in for a while as well and got his legs all clipped up. He has a bit of scratches already but it's not too horrible. I *think* it won't be too bad this year since there's no snow. Hopefully the paddock will dry up quickly.

Poor Cody

Yeah, poor Cody. I ran out to the barn at lunch today and actually rode. I don't think Cody is terribly thrilled with that. He and I just have a hard time with each other. Cody wants to mosey along on a very loose rein and I want to practice dressage. Now that Axel is officially retired (I even brought his saddle home from the barn - boo hoo) Cody is the only one left for me to practice dressage on and he's not happy about it. I try and give him as much rein as possible but I tend to gather my reins up bit by bit until he's mad and yanking them back. So far I have not found a way I can get him to bend and listen and "work" without having more contact on the bit. I really think I have to put the western saddle back on and teach myself how to neck rein and get him to bend and listen and "work" western style. Maybe I should take some western lessons to get motivated.

It would be really nice to have Axel back undersaddle so I could work on my dressage, boo. Anyways. My new tall boots came on Wednesday (the day after my last riding lesson go figure) so I wanted to give them a try. Of course I wore my muck boots out to the paddock and back so I didn't get my new boots too dirty. They worked pretty well. It'll be a few more rides before I'm totally used to them but they are really nice. The leather is soft so there really isn't a breaking in period. Cody and I worked on a bit of trot and he offered some canter. He still couldn't get the left lead but when I dismounted and lunged him he picked it up alright. We might have to just lunge and lunge and lunge til he's comfortable on that left lead. He gets so excited after he canters and it's hard to bring him back to earth. We tried a little turn on the forehand so I could get him moving off my leg. At the trot if I put my leg on to keep his rear end in on a bend he thinks I'm asking for a canter so I thought doing some turns would help. In the end he was a bit sweaty but the good part about working at lunch is that it's 40 degrees and sunny out so he was able to go right outside instead of waiting ages until he was dry (which is next to impossible since he gets nervous inside by himself sometimes).

Last Lesson

Here's the videos from my last lesson. Sadly my new tall boots arrived the day after. Also this video I spend most of my time on the far side of the arena so the other gal could get some "camera time." If you watch it big you can see me better ;)

If You're Bored

I've been taking a few riding lessons to get back in the saddle so if you're horribly bored you can watch a few of the videos. I'm sure it's riveting. :>

Nothing New

Not much new to report. Sadly the weather has been awesome this winter and I have not taken advantage of it nearly enough. I have gotten out to the barn on a few occasions, sometimes on my lunch break, which is nice since it's still light out at noon. I've been taking some riding lessons just to get a little more saddle time on different horses for the winter. I promise one of these lunch breaks I'll jump on Cody and take him for a spin. It'll have to be a pretty nice day so if he gets a little sweaty he can stand in the sun and dry off as I won't have time to cool him out for hours on end. Axel's still his usual fat self and Cody's been sporting some pretty decent butt dimples this winter. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do for spring/summer/fall riding this year. I'd love to be able to ride with Nancy and get out on a trail somewhere now that my trailer is done. But I am sort of horseless in that department. The barn owners have a surplus of riding horses right now and there's at least one other boarder that doesn't ride her horse so I'm hoping I can con someone into letting me ride :)

A little catch up

As you can imagine life with a baby is a little different than life without one. Needless to say I don't get to the barn often and when I do I usually just let the horses in the arena to run around a bit. Axel is pretty much officially retired. I say pretty much because I figure Daniel will be able to ride him a bit eventually. But I think my days of riding are over. Nancy has still been riding Cody when she has an opportunity and that makes me feel so much better about slacking so much. I did make it out there on Saturday and I actually got on and rode, if you can believe that. Cody did so well. He was calm and not terribly concerned with being in the barn alone. He still can't pick up the left lead and he gets a little excited and offers the trot or canter but overall it was great to get back on.

Things are a little slow

Things are a little slow these days. What with the baby, Axel being more or less retired, and the cold and dark winter weather, I haven't made it out to the barn in quite some time. The most I've done was some grooming during the last farrier visit. The boys are pretty happy with their round bales so I'm not too worried about them. Plus N makes it out to ride Cody. Axel has his usual winter swelling going on but his knee is doing okay. One of these days I'll get back on track and start doing some ground driving and maybe some trick training.

A Third Horse?

Yes, I have a third horse. Well actually it's Daniel's horse. One of the therapy horses has retired and we've agreed to give him a retirement home. Eventually he'll be in Canby when we move Cody and Axel there but for now he's living with a friend down in South Western Minnesota. He's got 3 other horse friends out there and it's a much better place to be a horse than at the farm with only cows. Of course it was an adventure getting him there. We spent the weekends prior getting the trailer up and running again after it's remodel. Then we hauled the horse, Haji, out to the farm for the night where he paced and worried most of the evening. He had been at the therapy barn for 19 years so moving to a cattle farm was a bit of a change for him. On Saturday morning we were going to bring him down to his new temporary home when a snow storm hit. Daniel and I ended up staying at the farm while Jeff drove Haji down in the snow and ice. They arrived safely and Jeff ended up just leaving the trailer down there for the time being. I guess he slid through many stops, yikes!

Someone is feeling good

Apparently a sore knee only means walking calmly is difficult. Bucking and jumping is exempt from the sore knee. I met N out at the barn last night for a ride before the darkness of winter took over. I walked Axel down the driveway and back and he seemed to be moving as well as the week prior so we gave it a shot. He actually moved out really well down the road. Due to our lack of riding lately he was working pretty diligently at ripping my arms out of their sockets. He had a tendency to abruptly stop and not want to move. I know Axel pretty well so normally I would haven't shied from telling him under no circumstances were we to stop but being as he has hardly been ridden the past couple years and it was cold and windy I was a little hesitant to use the same amount of convincing I normally would. He did give me one little crow hop on our way toward the neighbor's yard. Just about near the 1 mile mark everyone was walking calmly and forward so we asked them to turn around. And then the parade of tractors started and didn't stop. And Axel got a bee in his bonnet and started bucking. I more or less kept my seat but not until after I had hit my leg on the saddle horn. I asked him to stop and stand calmly and then I dismounted. Not something I would normally do but as I don't feel like it's appropriate to really make him work it was probably the safest thing to do. Cody was calm as could be while Axel bounced around behind him several times while I led him home. He was really moving out well at that point and it was just the occasional trip on the gravel that made him look the slightest bit off. I still don't think he's going to be doing any trail riding in his future though a calm ride on an isolated trail might be a little nicer than the busy road. I'll reserve the right to change my mind next spring when we get him another injection and the weather is nicer. Until then I think we'll have very few rides down the road if it's nice out, otherwise maybe some ground driving in the arena and some trick training if I get bored.

On the up swing?

A week after Axel's last injection I ran out to the barn to check on him. N was out on Cody with Steele so I just grabbed Axel and we walked down the road. He's been almost sound at the walk on flat ground without a rider for a while now and I was a little disappointed to see he was the same a week following his injection.

A week later I got Jeff and Daniel to come out to the barn with me and we grabbed Axel to see how he was doing. He was a lot better, moving out quite a bit at the walk on flat ground. I brought him into the barn and picked out his feet and Daniel had his turn sitting on the big horse. Then I jumped on bareback for one lap around the arena, a very fast and sound lap at that! I'm trying not to get my hopes up but maybe he'll be sound enough for a walk down the road next week with Cody and Steele. I'm pretty sure we're not going to be trail riding ever again but if we can keep him sound at the walk without a rider I'm formulating a plan to take him to a lead line show with Daniel some day.

Another Knee Injection

I ran out to the barn yesterday afternoon to meet up with the vet. We decided to give Axel another injection of steroids and HA to see if that would help him out a bit. They stand around so much in the winter I wanted to get it done so he was a bit more mobile before the ice started. If it works well enough for me to ride him down the road at a walk, all the better. We'll see how he feels in a week. He's such a good boy, stood perfectly still while having several needles stuck into his joint. Can't say I'd be able to do the same thing!

Daniel Meets the Boys

I took Daniel out to the barn last week to meet Nancy and the horses. The first time he was at the barn he slept through the whole thing. We put him up on Cody for a photo op. He was a little unsure of what was going on. I don't know if he was afraid of Nancy or of sitting on the horse but he almost started crying. He was interested in trying to pet Cody's nose but horses bite hard so we didn't let him get too close. Have I said I cannot wait until he's big enough to ride?

Nearly Perfect Ride

We had a farrier appointment on Tuesday so I ran out to the barn and left the baby with Jeff for a while. He was set up with a bottle but it's nicer if we don't have to waste a bottle so they try and wait until I get back. I thought Jeff had plans on Wednesday so when J suggested we go riding I didn't think I'd be able to. Well Jeff's plans changed and he offered that I go out to the barn and ride. So I met J at the barn and we took Cody and Steele down the rode. Nancy couldn't ride this week so I took her place ;) Cody was pure gold. I haven't had a ride like that on him in ages. He was calm, didn't need a lot of coaxing to leave the property, and went the same speed home as he did leaving the barn. We went south in the drainage ditch between cornfields and then ventured a bit further south than we usually go. Other than snatching grass every chance he had, Cody was a saint. He had a few tiny starts at the boogie men in the corn and needed to play catch up a few times since Steele walks quite a bit faster but it was great. Even during our little catch up trots he was calm and smooth. It's so nice riding a horse like that. I wish he was like that when he was alone but I'll take what I can get, who likes to trail ride alone anyways? I'm trying to schedule a time for the vet to come out and inject Axel's knee again. I'm hoping that helps enough for him to do an easy trail ride this fall if my trailer gets finished and brought down here. If it doesn't help him this time around then Mr. Axel might be looking at retirement at least from riding until Daniel is big enough to ride. I was trying to think of what I can do with Axel this winter if we're not riding. I was thinking of maybe clicker training him to do some tricks. Of course we can't work on bowing but there's gotta be some other tricks we could do. Maybe picking up items from the ground, he's already too mouthy, maybe we could put it to good use.

On my own

Back out to the barn last night. This time on my own. I decided to take Cody for a spin since it had been so long. He was, of course, the same as he usually is for me, uninterested in leaving the property. We worked in the ditch, back and forth, in front of the property. There was some fighting, a bit of cantering, and some crow hopping. You know, the usual. we ended by doing some trotting and a bit of wrong-lead cantering in the arena.

I jumped on Axel bareback in the arena for a few laps. He's still pretty "off" especially in the deep footing. I'm hoping next week we can get back out on the road with friends for a ride. If only I could get him to eat all his bute, he'd sure feel better as would I. Both boys had fly masks on but Cody had one ear out the side and one ear out the forelock hole. When I was done riding him I put his mask back on and put him in the pasture. By the time I was done with Axel (a whopping 15 minutes I'm sure), he had an ear out of the fly mask already.

Bath Time

I went out again last week to ride but poor Axel had other ideas. He looked good when I brought him into the barn. I groomed and tacked him up and we headed down the road with Cody and Steele but before we even got past the property it was evident that he wasn't feeling too great. I got off to see if he'd walk it off but he wasn't even putting his full weight on that sore leg. So not knowing if he'd go completely lame or what we decided to turn around and head back. Cody and Steele kept going to have a nice ride in the drainage ditches.

Since it was pretty hot out and the horses had been sweating just standing in their pasture I decided to use my time to give Axel a little bit of a bath. I didn't use soap but I hosed him down really well and even scrubbed and clipped up his back feet. I say every year I'm going to try and preemptively combat the mud fever but I never get around to it. So this is the first step in that. If I can keep them cleaned up before it hits maybe I can keep it away by keep some MTG on him. When the gals got back from their ride they hosed off the other horses before turning them out. Of course Cody went for a nice roll in the arena, good thing we didn't use soap, I bet it felt good though!

A Real Ride

Whoo hoo! I think I'm officially back in the saddle! Of course Axel is still pretty sore on that front knee but it was time to venture out of the arena. Axel's true colors shone through once again. After essentially being on vacation for over a year (with a little work in the middle) I was able to throw a saddle on him and take him down the road. I left the baby with his dad and they went to a car show and I met up with the gals at the barn and we had ourselves a mini trail ride a mile down the road and back. Axel was limpy, he wouldn't eat his bute before we left, hey I tried! But over the course of a mile and half he didn't really get any worse. He was calm and sane. He stopped a few times in an attempt to convince me the ride was over but it was nothing major. Cody was also a rock star. Calm as can be, as far as I could see he didn't try to bolt or trot or even turn around. What good boys!

I ended up getting off half way home and leading Axel, I figured it just wasn't fair for me to make he go that long after having so much time off. He moved out pretty well after I dismounted, for part of the walk he was nearly dragging me, guess I gotta keep working on my running so I can keep up. If I could get him to eat the bute he would have probably been just fine for the whole 2 miles. Since it's arthritis I'm still going to try and keep riding, just nice easy walks of course. He needs to keep moving and I think if I can get him to start using his rear end again that will help take some pressure off the front end.

So all and all it was a good ride. I would have loved to go longer, I would have loved to do some cantering, I would love for Axel to be 100% but it's just not going to happen. Depending on how he's doing and what the vet says next spring I might have his knee injected again. It's not expensive and it helped quite a bit last time, I wonder if there's any cumulative benefit to having it done every year? It'd be nice to keep him sound and working for the next few years until we move out to our own farm and he can retire with Cody. Of course with all the excitement of finally getting out again I forgot to take photos til we got back, whoops.