Finally a trail ride/Ouch

We finally made it down to the MN Valley trail near the barn. Nathan had fixed the trailer brakes so Tricia was able to use the trailer and bring Oly and Cinder (Dusty/Dirt had thrown a shoe). So she and Lexi came down and picked up Axel and the three of us went to the trail. Lexi and I hung out with the horses while Tricia took the trailer back to get Kalani and Cody. 4 horse trailer and 5 horses doesn't work out quite so good so we made 2 trips. Luckily the trail is only 5 miles from the barn.

From the sounds of it Cody loaded really well. It looked like he unloaded just about as good. Just a minor increase in speed right at the end of the trailer but nothing major. He started out on the trail pretty calm. Got worked up a little ways in but as soon as he was in front of the pack he was once again calm as could be.

Axel was moving out a little more than normal, still slow but he did his best. It wasn't until we started cantering where I ran into trouble. The first short canter Axel plunged his head down between his front legs. I was able to pull him up and push him forward but it wasn't the best ride ever. Later on in the ride everyone decided to do another canter, this time they just kept going a lot further than I was prepared to sit. Axel continued to canter with his head between his front legs and no amount of me yanking on one rein would get his head up and I wasn't in the best position to force him forward more. I did my best but it was not pretty and I am pretty sure he was disjointed on top of it all. The third time I said "no thanks" no cantering for us. So somehow in everyone else's mind cantering away from Axel and I was a good plan. Axel proceeded to have a fit. I tried to get him to just walk or trot behind them but that turned into our spastic head between the legs canter again. This time I could not pull him up at all. The reins on my dressage bridle are so short I only had one had on the reins and I was fighting with all my might to either pull him up or push him forward but I was not winning the battle. When Axel finally gave in I got off to wait. He proceeded to call to them and run around me in a circle freaking out. To say the least it was not fun.

The return trip Axel would even throw his head down in a small trot. Punishment for that was circling. I think I only had to circle two times before he stopped with the head deal. Then he decided that Oly and Cinder and even Kalani were evil beings and if they got within 10 feet or so behind him he'd try and kick at them. Cinder actually got Axel moving out quite a bit for most of the ride. When that finally wore off he was still pretty fiesty. We had some interesting "collected" trots and even popped over a log.

We'll just say I've had better rides. There are not many parts of my body that don't hurt today. We decided to load our three horses first this time so Cinder and Oly didn't have to load and unload. So Cody went first, he needed a minor amount of convincing but got in pretty effortlessly. Axel jumped right in as usual. And Kalani just needed a little coaxing as well. The unloading was a bit different. In all reality it didn't go that poorly it just sounded like it. When we pulled up Cody turned on the volume and the welcoming committee and he traded cries as loud as possible. When he finally shut up Axel decided he had enough of the trailer and started shifting his weight back and forth squishing Cody in the process. Andrea was able to back Cody partway until Axel squished her against the wall and stepped on her foot. Cody flung his head up in the air and hit it on the trailer roof. Believe it or not, he then proceeded to back calmly the rest of the way out of the trailer. Axel can't figure out the backing deal so he walked out forwards but calmly and in control.

I just hope Axel is a little better behaved for Steph's dad on the WCR Trail Ride Fund Raiser. He should be fine, Steph's dad usually just walks and he's a horseman so he should be able to put the fear of god in the horse if he misbehaves. We're still not sure what other horses we'll have. With Kalani and Kiko for sale and Andrea maybe riding Cody, who knows. She can maybe ride Papillon if needbe. Time will tell. I ordered mecate reins partly for the trail ride as I don't have any long western reins any more and eventually I'd like to try Cody in a bosal. I might start with just the rope halter and mecate reins and see how that goes before I buy a bosal.

Cody the Wonderhorse

From Cody's rider:
"That boy just keeps getting better and better, I can’t help but brag to you about it all :>"

"So, yesterday was a good day for Cody. After work, I set up some ground poles in the round pen, groomed up Cody, and took him in there for some practice. He tends not to use the entire round pen anyway (likes to cut corners, and the un-impressive length of a carriage whip doesn’t help), so the poles were easy to avoid at first. It took some coaxing, some discouraging, and some urging, but after a few attempts, he was willingly going over them at the walk and trot, in both directions! He’s very smart, and figured out what he was being asked only after one or two growls from me :)"

"We then went out on the trail for a while, and again, only one sad whinny a few paces in, otherwise he made no protest. Walked the trails, cantered a bit, trotted some, and then creeked-it for a while. He walked right in! I think that tree that we squished by the first time has moved in further, so we couldn’t get past it, but we did head down the other way for a while and managed to get pretty deep in the water (like, my feet were dipped in!). Cody was a pro, though, and calmly navigated everything."

"Best of all: no prancing going back home. Fast walking, yes, but no prancing."

Cody gets more gold stars

Andrea had Cody out on Monday night riding in the dry lot area. I guess he did really well again but he keeps putting his tongue over the bit. So we're playing musical bits right now to find one that he will tolerate and not fight. If he was more consistent with his behavior I would consider switching to a bosal. Maybe it's worth a try anyway if I can find one and some mecate reins for inexpensive.

So last night Tricia and I went out and met Andrea at the barn for a ride. Tricia rode Kiko, I rode Axel, and Andrea rode Cody. We tried Corey's old bridle this time, it's a heavier bit, medium port, slightly longer shanks. Over all it went fine with that particular bit but it'll take a few more rides to really evaluate it. Axel was decent, still wants to eat constantly. Kiko was a bit on edge and I guess kind of jumpy. It didn't really show with Tricia riding but that's the report I got. We rode around the back hill as usual and in the creek a bit. Axel managed a nice walk the second time we went through the little dip in the woods. He once again made some feeble attempts to buck running up the one hill. Cody walked up and down all the hills like a gentleman. We tried some cantering in the meadow area and I got a sort of buck sort of canter. Trotted on the circle and asked for a canter there and was just met with attitude. I have yet to try a gallop or canter on the trail this year with Axel and I probably won't (we'll see). It's not the end of the world if he doesn't canter but it would be nice to make sure we had both our leads. We might need some lunge line work.

We messed around in the creek again on our way back. Kiko actually got in while mounted this time. We managed to get a bit further than normal. The water was super low so it wasn't much of a swim. And it's still really less than ideal with all the rocks. On the way back Cody only had to be asked to circle once and walked the rest of the way. When we got back to the barn we gave the three a shower with the hose which they followed up with a nice roll in the dirt.

The Cody Report

Cody's rider is house sitting at the ranch so she'll be seeing him daily for two weeks. Her report from Sunday:

"CODY! We went for a ride this afternoon for quite some time. Through the woods, in the creek, down hills, up hills--and he was great! There was only one sad whinny looking for everyone else, otherwise he started out really well. When we first went into the woods, he tried to wheel around and go back, but was coaxed otherwise. Other than that, he pranced a bit at the end, of which several "re-do's" eventually cured (although I think he was more dizzy and annoyed with me than convinced to stop and walk). He was great, really. I'm excited to be able to spend more time out here and work with him. I'll be watching for any soreness, will know more tomorrow during the aftermath, but so far, so good! We were gone for about an hour, so I felt pretty awesome about that."

From the Vet

The vet called back about Cody's xrays. He says Cody's soles are not thin, they are fine. He has a hint of laminitis, possibly having suffered a bout previous to now. There isn't much rotation but the coffin bone and hoof aren't parallel. He said maybe 1 degree of rotation but not much. However, he did note that Cody's pastern joint is not quite right and that I should get the xrays prior to the next trim so the farrier can take a look and alter his angles accordingly. He thought lowering the heel. Which is ironic as we kept thinking his heels were too low. So all in all, Cody is fine, the shoes help so that's where he'll be for a while. We'll probably pull the shoes this winter and see how he does in the spring.

Axel Wears a Harness

Went out to the barn early yesterday as the vet was going to meet me out there. My horses and Tom's horses needed their Coggins test done and Cody needed some xrays to confirm/deny laminitis and judge any rotation. The vet actually thinks perhaps it isn't laminitis, he didn't get a lot of reaction with the hoof testers. He's thinking maybe thin soles. I do have my doubts since he only showed up lame 3 weeks ago and would have had the same thickness soles for several years. But he's supposed to call with the results of the film this morning. Cody stood very well for the xrays in any case so they should look good. He flinched for the blood draw but wasn't overly worked up about it. Even Kiko flinched. Once again Axel was complimented on his fine looks. We were talking about Kiko and Kalani being for sale and how we thought why wouldn't anyone want Kalani. And that everyone seems to want Axel instead. The vet likes Axel's head.

So after the vet left we got out the harness we borrowed. We didn't think Gunner's harness would fit so the one we borrowed is a synthetic half draft harness. It fit pretty well, just needs some minor adjustments and is missing a few pieces. The one piece it's missing isn't too big of a deal, just the holdback or footman loop. The other missing piece is the check rein or overcheck. Sometimes not a bit deal but from the looks of Axel dropping his head to the ground, he'll need an overcheck. I'm not sure where we're going to come up with one. Maybe there's one on Gunner's harness we can borrow for the meantime.

So we fitted him up and ground drove him for a while. Then we added the pool noodles with some sticks inside them for fake shafts so he could feel what it is like moving around with stiff rods next to him. When he was bored of that Steph suggested the next time was adding the cart. I haven't talked to the caretakers yet about using their cart *and* I was a little worried. A cart on wheels seems like it would be easy to run away with. So instead we tied a wood pallet to the harness to see if he would pull that and how he'd react. In my mind I thought a heavy wood pallet is harder to run away with. In reality it's probably way more dangerous and way more heavy than pulling a cart but Axel is set solidly in his lazy ways so I wasn't too concerned. So he pulled and he didn't much appreciate it but he did it anyway. I wish we had a pull behind drag and he and I could practice by dragging the paddock every week.

Next time, if we move onto the cart, we'll need to get some helpers (so I'm told). One header, one person in the cart, a driver, and two people on the sides of the cart to move it around if it gets stuck some where. I think prior to that Axel will have to be ground driven in the overcheck and get used to that. I can imagine that won't make him terribly happy not being able to drop his head.

Just a visit

Jeff and I ran out to visit the boys quick after Steph's house warming party on Saturday. Can't go within 5 miles of the horses without stopping in for a visit, now can we? Everyone was without a fly mask but Axel so I removed his. It was covered in mud. I guess they were all getting tired of the masks and helping each other remove them. So we'll take that to mean break time.

We watched Cody eat his dinner. Darn horse eats with his mouth open. By the time he's done with his bucket of food there's more on the ground than went in his stomach. I watched all of the other horses and they don't seem to open their mouths so much when they eat. On top of it he looks around a lot so he takes his head out of the bucket and drops the food on the ground. Reminds me to not give him supplements, they will just end up on the ground and someone else's horse will eat it.

From Cody's Rider

I haven't gotten the full report yet but until then here's what I know about Cody's ride on Thursday: He was good last night only did his weird pace thing at the end of the trail ride. They went out with other horses he even behaved without Kiko. They took Papillon, Gunner, Daley and Cody. I guess he stayed in the back of the pack and was perfectly happy about it.

For Lack of a Title

I went out to the barn, all on my own this week. Steph and Tricia both had things going on. Patti wasn't even around so it was just me, the horses, and the flies. I figured I would ride Cody a bit if he was feeling okay. I lead him into the barn and he was walking like he was sore. So, as usual, my plans changed. I groomed him, fly sprayed him, and let him wander in the barn for a while with his fly mask off. I grabbed Axel and groomed him up as well and they both just wandered around until Cody decided he wanted to leave. Of course as soon as he walks out of the barn door he's walking in the paddock perfectly sound. I think I might have been hoodwinked!

I decided to do some ground driving with Axel and see how he'd react to the pool noodles I bought. We just drove normally in the side pasture for a while to make sure we remembered how. Our steering is still a bit wonky, lots of over correcting. I think hooked up the pool noodles to the sides of the surcingle, mimicing the shafts that would be on a cart. I carried one end for a while so they were just bumping his sides. When that didn't faze him I let them drag behind him, hitting the lower part of his legs off and on. We walked and trotted a bit and the only thing he was concerned with was the fact I wouldn't let him eat every time we stopped. He's getting pretty good at verbal commands, I'll have to start adding things like "Gee" and Haw." I think he appreciated me not getting on his back with all the bites he has. Someone has been picking on Axel a lot lately and his whole left side is covered in teeth marks. When we were done with the noodles we drove down the road a little bit which also went just fine. It's funny to watch Axel grow in height when he sees something "scary." The sprinklers were all on at the nursery next door and the closer we got the taller Axel got. That's all he did, of course, but it was fun to watch. You don't get to see those things when you're on his back.

It was still pretty early when I got back to the barn so I decided to hand graze Cody for a while. The lawn was getting pretty long in places so we helped clean that up for a while. Maybe that's not the best idea with a laminitic horse but we were only out there for 10 minutes at most and they'll be back on pasture soon. Plus who knows what caused it in the first place, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a food issue to begin with.

Cody's New Shoes

So I went out to meet with the farrier yesterday to see what he thought about Cody. Cody was a little slow going but he seemed sound still. He managed to get a little rub spot on his one leg from the boots. The farrier put the hoof testers on him and concluded that indeed he is a bit laminitic in both feet. Not exactly the diagnosis I wanted to hear but oh well. He put front shoes on him. For not having been shod in over 10 years, Cody did really well. Even with the hot shoeing. I should have had a better camera, the smoke that comes off the hooves with the hot shoe is pretty neat looking, stinky though. The flies were bothering everyone so they weren't standing quite as nicely as they could but I think Cody did really well. I think the hammering was a bit sensitive for him. So when I have the vet out for Coggins pretty quick here, I'll have to have him do xrays on Cody's front hooves to check the rotation. The farrier thought it was pretty minimal at this point so now it's just shoe and hope it gets better.

Axel did fine compared to most the horses. Everyone was having a difficult time. I guess Gunner is a bit of a tough cookie with feet. The farriers were trying to pass him off on each other. Axel must be getting himself into some sticky situations. His whole left side is just covered in bite marks from another horse. They probably aren't as bad as they look but I might not be riding him tonight. They are right where the saddle will hit. Hopefully Cody is feeling up to a ride with his new shoes. Pretty soon he's going to have more pairs than me!

From Cody's Rider

Now that Cody seems to be feeling good in his fancy boots, his rider decided to take him out to ease him back into riding. Here's what she had to say about it:

"Your pony is moving well! I went out to ride today, and Cody looks very good. I think those boots are really helping him move out. Herd-bound, he is, however--we walked up from the pasture by the creek, and suddenly a shrill whinny pierced my eardrum and the entire thundering herd came a-runnin' up the hill at full-tilt. I did coax him away and took him out on a short-ish ride that he wasn't entirely happy about when he found out he was the only one going. There was a point when he went in reverse, hard, despite any ideas I may have had about what we were going to be doing. But, we worked in the "mowed circle" for quite sometime, walking, trying to get him to bend and flex a bit, and convince him that I had better ideas of what to do than he did. There was the predictable prancing at the end, but for the most part, I think it was pretty constructive. I think he'll really start to calm down with more practice. Did not bute, he came back to the barn sound and relieved to have re-joined the party :-) I hope to get out this weekend sometime, so more updates to come."