Exciting Happenings

Lots of stuff going on these days.  First we almost had Spring and then it snowed again, and again, and again.  So there was snow in May.  Not really inspiring for getting to the barn.  I just finally made it out to do spring shots and just made the spring vet appointment for June(!).

Daniel came out last week after the farrier appointment to ride a bit.  We pretty much had to pry him off the horse.  Gonna try and get out there weekly if possible for him to ride.

Then the most exciting news is that we finally found a horse. Did a lot of looking on the web, looked at a couple TBs in person that didn't work out, and found a couple QHs to look at a couple weeks ago.  The second of which just clicked. Big beefy AQHA, great brain, and a work ethic and his name is Booger.  So that was our guy.  He arrived on Saturday and we didn't waste any time to saddle him up and put him through a few paces.  He's coming off a gaming career followed by a roping career, neither of which he excelled at so he does need a little reprogramming to figure out what we're looking for but he's so calm I just don't think it'll take much time at all.

He does have a little "hitch in his giddyup" as it were, but it doesn't seem to bother him and the previous owner thought he'd work out of it as he shaped up.  We're having the vet take a peek in a couple weeks when he's out to check teeth and all that. Not ideal for a new horse to be off but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

And I got back on Axel!  He's been looking pretty good lately so I thought I'd give it a try.  Walk, trot, canter.  He's not perfect, still off, but it seems less than before.  My goal is to get him in shape (mentally and physically) enough to handle a walk down the road once in a while and eventually to learn to be ponied so Daniel and I can go out when we've moved them to the farm.  I stopped riding him because I just wasn't comfortable making him "work it out" if he got snotty with me with his sore knee.  But now that he's feeling a little better, I think a little work is going to be good for him.  He's been having some troubles in his stifles so hopefully a little exercise will help keep stuff loosened up.

So the plan is that N will ride Booger and I will do some ground work with him and keep Cody and Axel in shape.  We'll try and ride Booger and Cody together when we have the chance over the summer.  And then later in the summer/early fall we'll move Cody, Axel, and Haji out to the farm to semi-retire in style.  Then I'll half lease Booger and we'll turn him into a mounted shooting expert (or just a trail horse ;) ).

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.

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!

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.

Just a quick ride in the arena

Not a whole lot exciting on my last trip to the barn. I decided to give Axel a shot without any bute this time. Unfortunately he was having an off day so I rode bareback in the arena for 5 minutes at the most. So that was a little disappointing.

I tacked up Cody and rode him in the arena while J rode Logan and tried to convince him that Cody wasn't going to chase him. Cody tried to convince me he'd rather be napping but with a little help from Mr. Dressage Whip we got a little inspired. Just some trotting and a tiny bit of canter so I could convince him I could ride without yanking on his face. He's very inconsistent so we'll be cruising along just fine when all of a sudden he surges forward and leaves me behind and usually yanking on his face. I haven't quite decided what I want to do to work on this issue yet but I'll come up with something.

I generally spend a lot of time and effort trying to keep Cody on the rail which right now means he's nearly always counter bend and my inside leg is always dying from exhaustion. We had been working on a little bit of leg yielding and things like that which Cody never seems to understand until he wants to avoid doing something else. Frequently I'll push him to the rail and instead he'll either speed up or spin around like I asked for a turn on the forehand. He actually executed a very nice turn on the forehand for me on Tuesday even though that was not what I was asking for. So I played along and kept asking and insisted he go around a full 180 degrees. Good to know he can do that stuff just wish he'd do it when I asked!

After that I worked on getting the brush through his tail (need to get more show sheen the miracle groom doesn't work as well) and I was able to clean up his bits and pieces again with no kicking. Next time he gets a bath (with warm water) I'll see if I can convince him to let me clean him up with a sponge and soapy water, works much better than just a baby wipe.

A Little Better Visit

Of course the day I'm able to get out to the barn it's a billion degrees out. I waited until as late as possible to go in hopes that it would cool down a bit. So around 7:30pm I finally went out to see the boys. Cody, once again, was missing his fly mask. Axel came barreling up to the gate, it was nice to see he was feeling pretty good again. I grabbed him and brought him into the barn so I could get him cleaned up. He ate his new supplement without fuss as well as his MSM.

That back right leg was still swollen and I noticed there was quite a bit of mud fever under the dried mud. I should have cleaned him a lot more than I did but I got off as much of the mud I could with a brush and scrubbed some chlorhexidine on both back feet. I'm hoping the swelling is just from the scratches and nothing else. He was actually walking pretty well on the front for once so I didn't give him any bute. Once again I'm just about out of fly spray, I should have gotten the big jug but it's just so much money at once. I tried to clean up some of the rough edges on his hooves before turning him back out. Cody already had his supper at this point and Axel went running off to catch up on the hay pile. It might be a feeble attempt but I put both their fly masks back on. Cody's gotten a little sun burnt the past couple weeks so I want to keep his nose covered as much as possible.

I don't think I'm going to get a chance to get back out to the barn this week, but I'd like to get Axel's feet cleaned up better and maybe shaved as well. Perhaps if our plans fall through tonight I can make it out. If the mud would dry up that would be helpful.

Common' boys!

I managed to drag my lifeless body out to the barn before going to the farm. I came down with a nasty cold on Thursday morning. I mustered up enough energy to try out my new Rider's Rasp on the boys. Cody has decided to remove his fly mask as often as possible now. So I got him groomed up and fly sprayed and tried to even out some of the jagged edges on his hooves with the new rasp.

Axel was looking kind of bad. He was limping still and the more I looked at his legs the more I noticed he was kind of puffy. I looked around the best I could see and didn't find anything obvious so after grooming and fly spray we walked up and down the road a little to see if that would reduce any of the puffiness. In all reality I think it was mainly his back right that was swollen. So I gave him some MSM and bute and put him back outside in hopes whatever it was would clear up over the weekend.

Get Better Already, Will Ya?

Well Axel is still down in the dumps as far as that knee goes. It's big and swollen again and his limping around. I gave him some MSM and bute and then took him into the arena. Instead of lunging at the walk I just followed him around the arena with a lunge whip to keep him moving. He was off but he didn't get worse. At this point the only thing I can do is keep him moving. Though with all this swelling and soreness his knee is still much more flexible than it was before the injection. So we'll try a few more days of bute and see if the swelling goes down. Not much else I can do. There's nothing on his x-rays and since it's a joint there's really nothing else it could be but reaction to arthritis. I should probably bite the bullet and order some supplements for him and get him back going on that (done and I ordered some liniment to try). Hopefully getting him back on a joint supplement will do some good. The one I'm going to try is similar to what he was on before minus the Yucca, has more Vitamin C, no MSM (which I give separate anyway), has Collagen, little less HA, more Chondroitin, and a little less Glucosamine. So the affects should be about the same as the more expensive stuff he was getting. We'll see if my theory that he went to pot after I stopped the supplement is true. Especially since I can't do the joint injection more than every 3 months. Wish I would have gotten off my butt and ordered this stuff earlier.

So Axel got put back outside and I grabbed Cody. I had planned on maybe just getting on bareback in the arena for a few minutes but the new boarder showed up (she's been around a few months now but this was the first time I met her). I didn't really want to fight with Cody without a saddle for support so I threw on the dressage saddle. New horse, new people, I figured he'd want to pay attention to them and not me. He wasn't actually bad and after we did a bit of trotting we stopped to talk to the boarder which Cody appreciated. We finished off the night with a tiny bit of cantering and made around to the right almost 2 laps.

Two Steps Forward One Step Back

So the million dollar horse wasn't feeling up to par on Monday. Let's say on a scale from 1-10, 10 being awesome totally sound at all three gaits (something he hasn't been since this time last year) and 1 being so lame he can't move at all, holding up one foot hopping around style. Before he had his injection I'd say he was at a 3. After the injection he was at a 7 (still lame at the trot, sound at the walk and really moving out). Monday he was down to a 5. Not nearly as bad as before the injection but not as good as a week after the injection. I really don't know what the deal is. Just ups and downs I suppose. The only thing I can do right now is keep going slow, get him moving around more and back into shape. If this is really just arthritis issues then more work isn't going to make it worse, he doesn't have a broken leg or anything, it's just going to maybe hurt. My thoughts right now are to keep him going at the walk until it's been a month. Then we'll put a saddle on him and work more at the walk. I'm going to pick up some liniment as well. Of course I'm impatient but in all reality if you limped around 6 months it would take at least a month if not much more to start feeling normal again. Jeff's niece broke her foot and has been out of a cast for a month or more and she's still limping and is a little gun shy. Why should I expect Axel to be any different?

So I did ask him for a trot to see what was up and he jumped and flung his head and cantered instead. Not the best day to ask for that I guess but you don't know til you try. So I put him out after giving him some MSM and grabbed Cody. Cody managed to stay stress free while I tacked him up in the cross ties. I decided to put out some cones before I got on to ride. I'm not really worried about Cody rolling or doing something stupid while tacked so I just let him wander while I set up. I put the cones down the centerline so we could work on weaving a bit and when I got to the end and turned around, Cody had knocked every cone down and was standing behind me. So after I reset all the cones I got on to ride. Cody was slow as usual so I grabbed the dressage whip for some inspiration. It seems like he doesn't start working until I ask for a canter and then he's on his toes. Which was the case on Monday but he's starting to calm down a lot faster after a spazzy canter. He's a little hard to motivate and when I'm riding alone I'm hard to motivate so I'm guessing that's no help to him. I should get someone to come in and instruct me or something.

We did weave the cones a bit but without impulsion it's a pretty difficult task. At first Cody decided he was supposed to walk up to each cone and stop. After we got over that idea then he figured out we were weaving. I probably should have put the cones a bit further apart for him. So while we were in the arena riding Axel was out in his pasture screaming his head off. Usually he doesn't care if Cody is gone but for some reason he was very unhappy with the situation on Monday. Of course his screaming makes it harder for Cody to concentrate on the task at hand. We made a few attempts at side-passing on the wall with no success and then we did a few tiny turns on the forehand. That was pretty much it for the night. And since it was a billion degrees last night I didn't go to the barn at all. So we'll see how everyone is feeling on Monday when I can make it out again.

Tired Axel

So I put Axel in the arena and lunged him at the walk on Wednesday. I tried some body wrapping ala TTouch but it didn't seem to inspire him to pick up his feet any more. Still dragging those fronts. He moved around slowly and lazily but sound, just dragging. I tried a little more massage which he seemed to enjoy or at least tolerate well. But as soon as we walked out onto the cement he was sore. I can't quite figure if he's just hot, tired, and out of shape or if this is the knee talking. Especially since the duration of his knee troubles he was always more sound on the cement than he was in the arena footing. Wednesday it was opposite.

And I am ignoring this new lump. Sort of new lump. I think the lump was there before but it's bigger now. More ringbone maybe or just arthritic changes, we do know he's an arthritic boy. It doesn't hurt him nor is it hot and it's hard. Perhaps just a bump and it'll go down. Seems fishy if it's just arthritis that it'd show up nearly over night so for now I'm pretending it's not there. Luckily I've been photographing his legs and feet for a while now so I can keep an eye on changes.

Boy Axel, you sure go through a lot of work to get out of work.

I Guess It's Summer

I missed the farrier appointment yesterday because of the holiday but B held the boys for me. Sounds like they acted decently enough. I made it out tonight to see them after a week away. Axel was in a decent mood so I groomed him and then we went for a walk down the road. Even after the trim Axel is still dragging on the front so we'll just have to keep working and see if it improves. We went about a half mile total. Near the end of the walk he started tripping a bit and slowing down. I thought maybe he had a rock in his hoof but I didn't find anything. Granted it was in the 90s and a billion percent humidity so perhaps all of that contributes. Anyway we'll keep going slow and steady and hope for the best. And he has a new lump which for now I am going to ignore and pretend it's nothing. It's probably nothing? Definitely nothing? It's on his front right pastern. Looks like there is usually a lump there but comparing photos, it looks bigger now. It's hard but doesn't seem to bother him. Darn horse.

So I brought sweaty Cody in from the pasture to groom him and get him fly sprayed. Doing anything more than that required too much sweating on my part. I did find a few of his itchy spots. If you know Cody you'll understand why this next part is so cool, I was able to clean his "bits and pieces" for the first time. He was hanging it out when I came back in the aisle with a baby wipe and he didn't yank it back in when I started to clean it. And he didn't kick at me. He might have actually been calm about it. We may not be riding a lot but we seem to be getting somewhere in our horse and owner relationship. I'm not sure if the farrier trimmed Cody's left front a little shorter than normal to get rid of the crack he has or what. It looked pretty short and the crack was nearly gone but he seemed pretty tender footed. We'll see how it shapes up in a few days when it's had a chance to grow a bit. Luckily it's too darned hot to even think about riding lately but there's always tomorrow.

Just Some Walking

Brought Axel in, now a full week after his knee injection, groomed him and got him in the arena. I had him walk on the lunge in each direction for probably less than 5 minutes each. Still sound but dragging that right front a big (we'll see how he looks after a trim). Of course now it's a week later and I can't recall if I asked for a trot or not. But I was dared to get on bareback I think B thought Axel was going to act the fool. I jumped on with just the rope halter and lead and we did one lap in each direction at the walk. It was a perfectly sound and willing walk. It's been a long time sine I could say that. So even with some weight he's sound at the walk. My thought is that even if we can get him sound at the trot he can still do little trail rides at the walk.

I didn't feel like riding so I grabbed Cody and just groomed him quick and asked if B and Diva wanted to go for a walk down the road in-hand. Diva is getting over a nasty case of scratches so she's on vacation for a bit but a nice walk would do us all some good. Cody was slow on the way out but no calling and no wheeling around to bolt for home. We even made it nearly the whole mile. I asked him to turn around and go back as soon as he relaxed and started licking. Of course the trip back was much quicker but it was calm. We even stopped to visit some grandparents walking with their little granddaughter, she wanted to see the horses.

I think Axel and I might start walking down the road for our conditioning, it's much more interesting that lunging at the walk and easier to judge distance/time. If I was a smart person I'd have already trained Cody and Axel to pony and I could ride Cody and pony Axel but the road is just a bit too busy for me to feel comfortable doing that.

Axel is on the Mend (Knock on Wood)

It was the moment of truth as I walked up to Axel in the pasture yesterday. Sound or lame? He chased me around, tried to eat the halter and the fly mask, and tried to knock me over. Sound! No head-bob at all at the walk! I groomed him and took him in the arena. I lunged him for 5 minutes at the walk in both directions. Still sound! I asked for a trot. He cantered a bit then trotted out almost sound. Way more sound than he has been for 6 months. I'd put him at 75% for the trot. And the fact that there was no head tossing was a nice treat. So now we begin a slow increase into some work. Granted my guys don't really have to ever work. We dink around the arena for a few minutes, maybe ride down the road a bit, and sometimes we hit up a trail for a few hours. But I'm hoping easing him back into some sort of shape other than round-bale-green-pasture-blob will help loosen up those joints and keep him sound longer. After he did his tiny bit of work I did a little horsie massage which he seemed to enjoy tremendously. I can only imagine how most of his muscles must be sore from limping around for half a year. So that will be the ritual for a while, tiny bit of moving at the walk and then some massage. We'll add in a tiny bit of trot in a couple weeks. He's still dragging that right toe a bit so hopefully that will improve as we work. I might try some polo wraps just to give him some attention to the fact his has front feet. Works with the bell boots in the back pretty well ;)

Cody and I did end up riding along with J and the big guy, Logan. He's just been started under saddle and thought Cody was maybe going to chase him down and get him in the arena but even so he was darned calm about life. Cody was a bit less than energetic as usual so I had the dressage whip for inspiration. After a few lazy trips around the arena at the trot we ended up the evening's ride by working on turn on the forehand. So far it's "leg, leg+whip taps, leg+whip taps+voice cue" to get him to move that back end away. But it was enough to keep me working on it and I hope to get him to move away from leg eventually. Then maybe this lateral stuff will start to become more easy. If he doesn't want to truck around at any sort of speed then we'll concentrate on moving body parts instead. Especially easy to do on a hot day or bareback or heck even a cold day that we don't want to sweat. At 20 years old I think maybe we'll concentrate on trail riding, staying sound, and learning as much as possible to be a good kid's horse someday.

We spent a lot of time in the cross ties with Diva just hanging out and chatting. Cody's personality is really starting to show. I cleaned his nose with a baby wipe and he spent the time trying to eat it and then giving us the nice "that smells" face (flehman response) despite it being an unscented wipe. He was generally just being goofy. He's getting more and more comfortable with me scratching around his sheath. I'm hoping he'll eventually let me clean it because, yuck, he's a dirty dirty boy.

Axel gets the big guns

Adequan, MSM, DMSO, and some bute was just not cutting it for Axel's sore knee. In fact the vet was surprised the Adequan didn't cut it. But Axel is good that way and feels bad for the vet and wants to help pay for his children's college. So after a week of phone tag I spoke with the vet and made an appointment for Tuesday to have Axel's knee blocked and then injected if the block indicated as much.

Axel actually wasn't terribly lame after not seeing him for a week so that was nice. I tried to get him groomed up before the vet arrived but he was a little early. He had me walk Axel in the arena to see how lame he was and make sure it was that right front (obviously). He had a significant head bob on that right knee. I asked him for a trot and got a big fat "F You!" He flung his head and bounced around and I don't think actually trotted at all. Of course this wasn't really a surprise to anyone. The vet scrubbed up Axel's knee for a nice long time to prep for the Lidocaine injection. Axel stood very quiet for a couple shots. I walked him around the arena once to get the injection spread out and then we stood for a few minutes to wait it out while I finished brushing his mane and looking for woodticks (found 2). When he had 10 minutes or so of waiting I walked him back in the arena up and down the wall a few times. The vet thought he had about an 80% improvement at the walk. The head bob all but went away. He still has his usual stiffness but he never did move all that well and he hasn't worked in 6 months, I would think that would affect it as well. I did ask for a trot and got a bit of a head toss and then a few strides of trot. He was off at the trot but I didn't get the big reaction I did the first time. So the vet thought all this meant the injection would be the way to go.

So another round of scrubbing commenced and then a couple more injections right into the knee. This time it was some steroids and hyaluronic acid. Once again Axel stood really patiently, admittedly it was too danged hot to move in the first place. After that I turned him out and now it's a waiting game. When the block wore off he was back to his normal lameness. I guess it takes about 5 days or so to really kick in and for him to start feeling better. So we'll wait and see and the vet wants a phone call update on how he's doing in a week or so, so keep your fingers crossed that this was the right fix.

So after all that I brought Cody in to groom. It was way too hot to ride or do any work but since it had been a full week I thought the old boy deserved a bit of pampering. Well the longer we stood there the more I kept thinking about clipping a bridle path. I tend to go on the au natural side of things, I like long manes and all that. But I gave in. I clipped Cody's feathers, whiskers, and a bridle path. I'll admit it was a small bridle path but enough so I can tell what is forelock and what is mane. The whiskers I didn't get all the way down to the skin but I cleaned up the long dirty ones now he just has stubble. And for some reason he still had some pretty impressive feathers on his legs from winter so I clipped those off as well. I have to say I love my new clippers. It's so quiet and quick. Cody almost looks like a real horse (J said she's going to have to go out and lead him to the hay in the middle of the night now that he doesn't have whiskers to feel his way around - barn joke). So Cody who everyone is pretty sure was treated very poorly as a yearling, who was very head-shy and not terribly friendly now let's me wipe his nose with a baby wipe, scratch his ears, clip his bridle path and whiskers, AND when scratching his face with the curry gave us another lip curl. Go Cody! It only took 20 years!

So yesterday I made it out to the barn again and thank goodness for cooler weather. It rained off an on all day but it was only 70F and not humid so I planned to do some riding. Axel followed me around the pasture for a while and he was looking pretty good. Still limpy but I think it's getting better. I groomed and tacked up Cody and brought him in the arena. He was pretty pokey and I had a hard time getting him moving. Seems like the only way to get him going is to ask for a canter and then he gets a little spazzy and will move out for a few minutes before going back to his slow turtle speed. I think I'll be riding with a whip from now on at least until he figures out we need to just move out and not stop until I ask. We visited with B and Diva for a while and luckily for Cody I was as lazy as he was so I only ended up being mounted for a half hour.

Cody likes it!

I made a quick stop out to the barn on Friday on my way out of town. I didn't want to go a whole week without checking on the boys. They're usually fine but I like to see with my own eyes and assess things like just how lame is Axel today. He was still "ok" on Friday after 5 days on and 2 days off bute. I pulled off their fly masks and checked for bugs and rub marks. Axel's got a little rub on the left side of his face, it's kind of low so I'm not sure if it's from the mask or what. The one thing I hate about fly masks is how they grind in the mud when they roll.

So I didn't make it out to the barn again until later last night. I had planned to ride but it was almost 8 already. Axel was back to his worse than normal limp so I gave him some bute, MSM, and put some DMSO on his knee. I'm hoping this new biting/chewing issue is due to pain and if we fix the pain the biting will stop. I walk up to him in the pasture and take off his fly mask to put on his halter and he either takes the fly mask or the halter or lead rope and tries to cram the whole thing in his mouth immediately. And he'll grab at the cross ties and bite down on them as hard as he can. I keep waiting for him to start wind sucking but so far he's just biting/chewing. He hasn't been on enough bute on a regular basis to cause ulcers so who knows what his deal is. He's grazing fine and doesn't seem to be chewing on the fence posts at all that I've noticed. He walked out a bit better after his meds and some grooming. I have a vet appointment for next Tuesday to block that knee and see what happens. From the sounds of it, if it's really arthritis and we numb the knee he should be sound and then we'll do an injection right into the joint. If we numb it and he isn't sound, well then I'm not sure what the problem would be. Seems unlikely that if the problem isn't located in his actual knee he'd be as swollen and as knobby as he is. J thought perhaps that right front is so bad because his hind left had been sore for so long and the compensation finally caused an issue. I really should have looked into major medical coverage for him a long time ago (just emailed an agent to find out if he has any literature he can send).

I put him out and grabbed Cody to get him groomed up. Cody has found a new love of rolling in the mud I think. He used to never be dirty but the past year or so he's always caked in mud and dirt I've even caught him laying down which I rarely did before. And despite our arguments over riding he's been getting a little more cooporative bit by bit. Since I can't get him to stand still to put desitin on his sun burnt nose I bought baby wipes with aloe, it probably won't really do much but it was worth a try. He stood really well for that last year and this year. I've even been able to clean out the dirt in his nose and he just stands there and lets me. I can scratch his ears when they are itchy and for the first time when I was scratching his face with the curry I got an honest to goodness lip curl. Of course wearing a fly mask makes for an itchy face but this is the first time he showed a visible reaction to enjoying his face curry time. Go Cody! So on top of him behaving and being really patient last night, the other horses were in their stalls eating dinner and I decided that my laziness would win and I wouldn't force Cody into doing work during dinner time. I hope he appreciates it!

Cody is not a Dressage Pony

So Wednesday was day 5 for Axel on bute. The swelling has gone down to a usual knobby arthritic size but he's still lame. Not *as* lame as he was on Sunday. I'm just happy he actually ate powdered bute from a bucket this time with very little fuss. Apparently bute + MSM tastes better than bute + antibiotics. I'll have to make sure there's always MSM around (which I will taste myself one of these days). I did an extra good grooming job since I'll probably be out at the farm this weekend of course I think it's supposed to rain the whole time so my grooming is probably gone to waste already along with the fly spray. Still June and I think I have to go buy another bottle. I might have to break down and get the big jug.

So I grabbed Cody and got him groomed up quickly and threw on his tack to ride in the arena with A and Danny. We're still having troubles tracking left but not quite as severe as before and I'm sure it makes a difference that this was day two of me riding him. I played a little with contact and trying to get Cody give to it, he did figure out the little exercise A showed me after a few tries. Part of his problem is that he doesn't like contact, it stresses him out or makes him nervous. So if he surges, I accidentally put more contact on the reins and then he freaks out and takes off even more. I don't know if it's worth it to try and get him to accept more direct rein contact or for me to learn to ride with less contact. Maybe a little of both? We actually had one nice round to the right of canter peppered with some bad spazzy moments but we ended up riding for more than an hour I think working on various things. So I still really need to get some long reins and work on ground driving with him as well as work building up his back. And then on top of all that my dressage saddle does not fit it. It's actually too narrow if you can believe that. But unless I some how stumble on an inexpensive saddle that fits we might be out of luck for a while. Anyone have a wide tree cut back 18" dressage saddle laying around?