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.

Two (too) Hairy Visits

I try to not put two posts in one but I'm approaching a week behind so too bad. I had Friday off work so we were heading to the farm on Thursday evening but Jeff had some stuff to finish at work first so I ran out to the barn. Axel got his MSM and I opted to not groom since he was shedding in full force and I didn't want to be covered in hair. I did however find a very itchy spot on his back and we stood in the arena while I scratched him. I ended up getting covered in hair anyway. I thought maybe he was going to roll but in the end he didn't. He thinks hard about it though.

So last night I went out to the barn while Jeff was rock climbing. I thought he would be busy for a while and I'd get a chance to get on Cody. I grabbed Axel first and got him groomed up. He's shedding like mad. I've noticed this both last night and the week prior, but he's stopped picking up the wrong back foot. For a while there when you'd ask for his hind left he'd pick up his hind right. My guess was that it was a balance thing so he didn't have to put weight on that sore front knee. But the last two times he's picked up the correct foot without an issue. And he's seemed mildly perkier/less sore. His knee is still puffy though. I walked him around the arena a bit and he was slightly less lame. It's all very subtle still at this point. On our way out of the barn I decided we'd take a little walk down the road since it was very melty. He walks really well on the flat harder surface so I thought this was a nice change and a chance to move a little. We only went down to the first mailbox and back. He was a little hyper on the walk back and nearly trotted over me going into the driveway. Needless to say you couldn't tell he was lame at that point. He hasn't been on stall rest but he's pretty much done nothing all winter so I can see where he'd be a little wound up on some footing that seemed safe. We might have to go for some more walks down the road before we start lunging or anything like that.

Cody isn't shedding nearly as much as Axel but he's getting there. His neck and his face have started pretty decently. I brought him in the arena to move around as well. I had originally thought maybe we'd go for a ride down the road but it gets pretty chilly quick and with no ditch traffic could be an issue so I figured he'd be just fine stretching his legs inside. Jeff was already on his way home so I scrapped the plan to ride and just free lunged Cody for a while. I need to bring out the Flip and get a real video of how good Cody looks these days. The cell phone videos leave a bit to be desired. We did a little more work in hand than we've been doing lately which took him a while to settle into. I really have to work more on the turns on the forehand and haunches he tends to ignore me on those which could be why we don't do them under saddle. I'll have to brush up on some techniques online or something.