Eureka! I hope.

So Cody ate his bute on Monday. And I think he ate most of it last night as well. In any case either one actual dose of Bute is helping or he's feeling better on his own. Last night he was looking pretty good as far as his ability to walk. I brought him into the barn to try and file his hooves down a bit as we were thinking they were too long. Of course looking at the photo I took the angles don't look nearly as bad as I had thought (outside opinions are welcome on the topic). My photo of the other foot isn't a very good representation so I left that one out. This photo he does have all his weight so his pastern angle might be a bit more than normal but shouldn't be too far off. So maybe it isn't hoof angle that's causing issues, maybe he just over did it in the pasture or something. Time will tell. We plan to keep him on the bute through Friday and then see how he does over the weekend. I think I'll keep filing his feet each time, at the very least so I can get better at it. It would be nice to keep them filed between farrier visits. He was very patient while I tried to figure out how to hold his hoof and file at the same time. I think he appreciated the fly spray and standing in the slightly less buggy barn all the while watching Kalani get his butt kicked in the round pen since he's been such a pill about cantering lately.

When Steph was done chasing Kalani around ;) we decided to go down to the creek. Axel had been sweating just standing in the sun and Kalani was pretty sweated up from working in the round pen. Wisely we opted to throw the synthetic saddles on, neither of us wanted to sit on their sweaty backs without one. I think I'll purchase a synthetic western one of these days, the Big Horn saddles that Kiko and Kalani use are pretty nice, lightweight, fit good, and are comfortable. Axel was moving pretty good again despite his lameness on Sunday. But he's pretty off and on as far as that goes with his ringbone. He's always very willing to jump right in the creek and then stand there and eat grass off the bank. Kalani was slightly less willing as he hadn't been in the creek before. Steph attempted to ride him in but he wouldn't take the plunge so she got off and lead him in which worked much better. She remounted and we walked down the creek a little ways. Axel was determined to get back on the bank and eat grass plus some parts of the creek are rocky and he has a hard enough time walking on flat ground. So he make a break for it every chance he got. Kalani took the whole creek business in stride. Stopping a few times to figure out what was going on when he started sinking in sand or there was a bit more of a current. He even found some spots in the creek where he was up to his belly in water.

Kalani's first reaction to getting in was to stick his head under the water almost up to his eyeballs. I found this to be very humorous. He then tried to blow bubbles with his nose. Overall we think he enjoyed himself. He didn't paw or try to roll, so I think that's a good sign. Fortunately (or unfortunately as it was sweltering) neither Steph nor I got very wet. And here's my second sales pitch of the post, I had used Kalani's saddle and pad and Kalani had on Kiko's. Kalani has a plain wool pad which I put on Axel's sweaty wet back. When we were done riding that wool pad was dry as a bone. I guess wool pads really do wick moisture. I might have to pick one of those up, I think the plain flat wool "underpads" aren't too spendy compared to most western saddle pads. And I think Fleet Farm now carries Reinsman tack.