The Chronicles of G2

Happy Belated Birthday, Gus!

2012-01-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

On Monday, January 16th Gus celebrated his 22nd birthday. I really wish I would've been able to make it out to see him but I was otherwise occupied.

It's hard to believe that Gus is that old.. Granted some days he seems ancient, but then there are other days where he's as frisky as a young greenie. To borrow a thought from Stacey, from Behind The Bit, I think Gus thinks he's four. Because 2+2= 4, not 22. (Actually her old guy, Harvey, had the idea).

My goals/resolutions for Gus for 2012 are to keep him fit, healthy and happy. I plan to accomplish this by doing the following:
     1. (fit) riding as correctly as possible, at least three times a week
     2. (healthy) staying on top of his hooves and arthritis. If this means getting after J, the farrier, then so be it. If this also means more frequent stifle injections or Legend (IA) injections, then so be it as well
     3. (happy) make sure he gets plenty of grooming time and, weather permitting, grazing time. Granted Gus is IR, but I don't see why he can't have a few 10-15 minute grazing sessions come spring, when the grass starts sprouting. He's basically in a dry lot 24/7 so a little change of scenery should do him good. I'll just need to keep a close eye on things.

The following are some photos taken on January 5th. I think it was nearly 50 degrees outside. I wasn't wearing a jacket (whohoo! - though I did have on a base layer, then a mock turtleneck, breeches and a down vest). Compare that day, earlier this month, to today. It's a balmy -1 currently and windchills were rumored to be bottoming out at around -45. Lovely.

Enjoy!

Granted, this isn't the best conf shot, but Gus has built up a nice topline.

Even his back muscles are starting to reappear again. Success!

Looking west towards the sunset.

Not my greatest picture...

The following photos are Gus modeling his new Centuar Camelwatch sheet. Courtesy of Smartpak. (I got a killed deal on it, so Gringo got one as well ... stay tuned to photos of Gringo modeling his new sheet. I just hope it fits him).

The new turnout sheet is 1200denier and came with an attached midlength neck.

Back to the Basics

2012-01-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a long time since I updated the blog. Life has hectic since the new year. But whose hasn't?

Today being Thursday means that last night was lesson night. I didn't have a lesson the week prior (so nothing on the 11th) due to bad weather, so yesterday's ride was the first in nearly a week and a half. And we went back to the basics.

Our entire lesson consistently almost entirely on a 20m circle. We worked on straightness of Gus's body on the circle (being his haunches weren't flying off to the outside or his shoulder wasn't popping out - or collapsing in), the shape of the circle and the quality of the gaits.

B couldn't keep her laughter in check, with the antics that Gus was pulling. I would fix the front end (ie get him up off his shoulders and sitting more on his haunches) and then he'd pop out his haunches. Or vice versa. I couldn't get all the pieces to stay in check. Gus's favorite thing right now is to duck behind the bit. When he does this, he'll lose contact with me and then he ends up on his forehand. Not pleasant.

We did have a few moments of very nice walk/trot/canter though. For whatever reason, he was much better going to the right last night then he was going to the left. Although once we picked up the trot, on the left rein, he improved quite a bit - still not as flexible and comfortable going to the left though.

Soundness-wise, we just had a few bad steps. A nice trip in the front end happened just moments after B said that Gus was looking nice and hadn't taken any bad steps. Haha, spoken a moment too soon. The other bad steps he had were taken with the left hind - while going to the left.

For homework, I wish to continue working on straightness, relative to the movement, and the quality of the gaits. The walk should be marching but not too forward as Gus can't keep balanced if he's too far forward. Then the trot and canter should build from there. We had a really nice canter, both directions, last night. It was powerful (well, for Gus) canter that almost had some "jump" in it. Very nice to ride.

And, I even got a nice comment on my quieter legs. I'm trying. Really I am. And I think B noticed it last night. Success!

Catching Up.

2011-12-28T18:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've done an update. So, here's the rundown since my last post.

Last week, the week before Christmas, Gus had his hooves done again. And again, I'm not really impressed. I feel like I can't get anywhere with the farrier... it's like a one-way street, as far as communication goes. The toes especially seem to be too long.

Here's the photos, in the usual order:

Looks like that wavy line may finally grow out. Next trim perhaps?

Then on Thursday, Gus saw Dr. K again (the chiropractor). He was out in the same places again. Mainly in the poll, withers and SI region. We didn't have the grazing muzzle (aka Hannibal contraction) available, so Gus was a bit more of a pain then usual. But, he's ubber sensitive when it comes to body work, so it's a bit understandable.

Dr. K was pleasantly surprised with how good Gus looked. She suggested going three to four months until the next visit. This last appointment was at three months. I'm thinking we'll see how he looks at three months out and go from there. Sooner appointment if needed, otherwise we'll wait it out.

As far as riding goes, I had a good lesson last Wednesday. Warming up on the lunge line, we had two cavalletti poles set up at 18' intervals. One in was raised on a bloc and basically Gus had to trot and canter through the line. The goal was to avoid that dreaded extra step at the trot that Gus tends to throw in at the end. Ehh, sometimes he nailed it and other times he botched it. Once we had a couple nice trips, we reversed directions and repeated the other direction.

Undersaddle work consisted of mainly working on straightness in all three gaits. It's much more difficult then you'd think. Especially when you don't have the rail to help keep all the parts in line. Gus was a decent enough sport though and we managed a couple nice strides of straightness. Definitely did not have nice, straight lines - yet. That's the goal.

Today, undersaddle work was a disaster. Gus was so preoccupied with dust and light. He kept shying away at the shadows on the arena walls and footing. What a goofball. I did make him trot and canter through the 18' line of cavalletti poles. Kinda interesting, to say the least. I think if I want to use the poles in the future, I'll make them on the long sides ...

Gus is still on an anti-food strike. He's really not wanting to eat his grain at all, especially not in the mornings. So, in order to see if we can trick in him into eating, I've decreased his grain in the mornings from 1 1/2lbs to 1lb and kept him at 1 1/2lbs at night, for the time being. He does tend to finish his grain overnight though so if worse comes to worse, we'll just up his PM grain (which I was going to do in the first place and kinda forgot to day when I set up grain for the next three weeks).

Here's a few random shots of Gus from earlier this month:

And now, on to Mr. Gringo. Today was pedicure day for Gringo. He was a trooper, like always. For the most part, I'm pleased with how L does Gringo's hooves. There seems to be a bit unevenness once in a while (as far as not being symmetrical when viewed from above) but overall, I'm happy with Gringo's hooves.

Here's the photos from today. Keep in mind that they are taken on an uneven surface ... hence the crookedness to some of the photos:

I also was able to get some body shots. Definitely nothing spectacular ... but it's hard to photograph a horse who won't stand still using a cell phone. One of these days I really need to drag out the real camera again.

Here's hoping for the best for both my boys in 2012. I really do deserve (as do they) a year free from the headaches and stress that I've been dealt these past few years... truly I do.

Quadrille 101

2011-12-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was day 1 of the start of our winter quadrille season. It was a blast. Simply put, a quadrille is a group of horses and riders performing in union. Instead of being just four riders though, we had six this go-round. Organized chaos... and at times not so organized.

I was really pleased with Gus though. He's such a trooper. We got into the arena about thirty minutes before the practice started, mainly so I could spend a few minutes lunging Gus and getting him all warmed up. Definitely thought it was in his best interest to be nice and limber before starting the practice... considering his the oldest and most arthritic horse in the group. Haha. Nearly two hours later, we were finally done. Gus was exhausted, and I wasn't too far behind him.

Other then that, Gus seems to be doing well enough. He's getting his hooves done again on Wednesday so I'll reserve any judgment until then. Needless to say, I've not been happy lately.

Gringo is still doing okay. I feel bad that he's truly been on the back burner. I owe him a nice, long grooming session one of these days. Maybe on Christmas... we'll see. I desperately need to get some photos taken of Gringo (and Gus, for that matter) so I'm hoping to try to get that done soon... hard to do though when I'm the only one out there.

Regarding the quadrille - it sounds like we're going to try to make this an ongoing Sunday afternoon thing at the barn. The next two weeks are holidays, of course, so nothing is planned then. But going forward, the barn will be having practice sessions. Can't wait!

It's Thursday!

2011-12-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

Which means two things.

1. Yesterday was lesson day.
2. Tomorrow is Friday.

Yesterday's lesson, to sum it up in one word, was amazing. It all started off like it usually does - me hurrying to get to the barn before my lesson starts at 6pm. I managed to get to the barn and get Gus ready all before the start of my lesson. Even managed to get in the arena about 5 minutes early. Whohoo.

We began, as usual, with lunging. First without side reins and then with them attached in their new found position (high at the dee rings and low between Gus's front legs). B really wanted me to get after Gus to keep him from dropping behind the vertical and losing contact. I tried as best I could to keep up the impulsion from the hind end, but that's easier said then done when you've got a horse who tends to ignore the whip.

B ended up setting up two cavalletti, about 18 feet apart, raised on one end. Perfect distance, least for this old, stiff and arthritic horse, to canter through. And boy did he hate me for that. But cantering through those poles really did help him lift his front end and put more weight on the back end. After cantering the poles, we had a nicer trot.

After doing probably a good 20 minutes of lunge work, we started the undersaddle part of my lesson. Yesterday's lesson consisted of making Gus really round at the walk, to begin with. Then we proceeded to the trot, keeping it a nice, compact trot with lots of bounce (attempted to get the bounce... didn't always have it). From there, we proceeded to do a leg yield from quarter line to the rail, 10m circle at the rail to shoulder-in until the corner. Rinse and repeat.

It eventually evolved into LY, circle, haunches-in. The haunches-in though, was a lot more difficult going to the left then it was to the right. Gus, while moves better to the left, is much more bendable going to the right. Go figure. So the haunches-in to the left ended up more of a head-to-the-wall first, then I was able to ever so slightly adjust the bend so it was more of a truer bend.

Canter worked followed next. That ended up being short and sweet, because by now Gus was exhausted. He had a mini puff break after the lunge work (he was huffing and puffing from that), but he never did get his 5 minute walk break like he normally does. We both were a bit tired by the time we made it to the canter. So yesterday's canter work consisted of true canter. We did nice big 20m circles and doing a simple change of lead at X. We did try a few easy 1 loop serpentines, but Gus had other plans and kept swapping out leads. I now forget which direction he kept doing that on ... seems to me it was on the left lead, and B commented on the nice right lead canter he had last night.

In other news, we're back to no yawning again ... and no weird head twitches either. Not sure what's up with that, as nothing has changed except Gus being worked consistently in his BoB bridle (Hampton). Next week, Dr. K is out so hopefully she can straight Gus out again.

On Sunday, our barn is hosting it's first (in FOREVER) quadrille practice. I'm excited. Gus and I are going to play along, so it should be a lot of fun. Organized chaos, ya know?

It's COLD outside.

2011-12-08T09:17:00.001-08:00

Kinda like how that song goes... "Baby, it's cold outside". Well, here in MN I think winter has finally arrived. It's really getting cold outside.

It's been a couple weeks since I last updated, but nothing has changed drastically. I haven't seen Gringo in ages (due to a crappy work schedule), but tomorrow we have a "date" set up - hopefully. Otherwise I will for sure be out over the weekend to give Gringo some much needed attention.

My lesson last week (November 30th), went over well enough. I can't remember what all we worked on, but I do know for a fact that we worked for a while on slightly raised cavalletti. Gus was so incredibly stiff and anti-forward, that the poles were probably only twoish "feet" apart (by "feet", I mean two of my size 10 foot spaces). As the lesson progressed, we were able to move the poles out a little bit more, but they were still much closer together then what a normal trot stride would be.

I think we also worked on the canter a bit. Can't remember for sure, but Gus's canter has been improving. Nothing spectacular, but it never was to begin with. He does have a nice left lead canter now though and most days his right lead looks good as well. We still have issues maintaining the left lead canter when going to the right (so in countercanter).

Between last week and this week, I was actually able to make it out to the barn a couple times. On Monday, Gus had just had his teeth floated so rather then riding, I opted to just lunge him in his halter. He was a pretty good boy. I was only really interested in getting him to move down and out, and we quit on a good note.

Tuesday, I was able to get some half-way decent work with Gus. I dragged out the poles again and set them at three feet and four feet intervals. The three feet ones were in a group of five, the four feet had just two poles. Gus managed the poles well enough, did a bit of stumbling though to begin with.

I had another lesson yesterday and I thought that it ended up being fairly productive. We did manage to spend about thirty minutes with Gus on the lunge line, trying to get the best configuration of the side reins. Final verdict? Between the legs and at the pommel (I use vienna side reins). With that configuration, Gus can't really hide behind the bit... and when he attempts to, I ask for more forward and he ends up popping himself back up at or near vertical. B said it was okay, in this instance, for him to be slightly above the bit.

Under saddle, we ended up working on the same principles. He needed to keep himself up and level (ideally his withers and poll were at the same height) and if he dropped contact, he was pushed forward to seek more contact. It sorta, kinda worked and we had some nice steps in there. Like B said, she hasn't seen Gus move so evenly in a while. Hopefully we're on the up and up again.

We also worked on some trot poles as well. They were spaced about 1 canter stride apart on the long sides, near E and B. We changed up from trotting over and doing 10m circles around the poles to doing a 10m circle between the poles. Gus definitely had some bad steps starting off on the trot poles but ended the lesson nicely. No canter work (except that which was done under saddle) yesterday.

And to amend an earlier post, Gus did have a round of Adequan back in May/June. I hadn't really returned to blogging back then so forgot to mention it. Anyways, after doing stifle injections (Legend IA mixed with some Depo Medrol) in both hind legs at the beginning of May, I opted to follow up with a round of Adequan a week later. Then in August, I do believe that Gus had another Legend injection, IV this time. Followed by another IV Legend a few weeks back. I plan on doing another IV Legend in another couple months, probably early February.

Legend offers some relief.

2011-11-25T12:23:00.001-08:00

So, I finally managed another ride yesterday on Gus. First ride since my last post (so just over a week since I worked with - and saw, Gus) and I'd have to say that I think the Legend offered some relief from arthritic aches and pains.

On Wednesday of this week Gus received his first Legend injection in months. I'm checking with the vet, cause I could've sworn that Gus had a Legend injection (IV) done back in August, but according to my records I'm mistaken. So we'll see... otherwise it's been since May that Gus had any sort of joint/IM injection.

He was definitely a lot more comfortable working yesterday undersaddle. On the lunge he was moving out nicely, still not reached forward as much as I'd like. But for Gus, it was decent.

We focused primarily on repeating the exercises that we did the week prior. So we did the ribbon at the walk, followed by some trot serpentines, ending with some shoulder-fores/ins before starting the canter work. Cantering was done in the same fashion as we've done in rides past. I started off with the counter-canter, right off the bat and worked Gus in large figure-8s. Gus definitely has a difficult time maintaining the right lead canter while counter-cantering... if you can follow that. He's much better on the left lead. Regardless though, the canter has improved greatly and all the issues I had last week seem to be non-existent again. Not sure if it's the Legend working that well or the fact that Gus didn't have a full bladder...

Cold Weather and Arthritis

2011-11-17T12:40:00.001-08:00

Arthritis flares and cold weather seem to run hand in hand, least when it comes to Gus. Last night, being a Wednesday night, meant lesson night again. It was a near disaster from the get go.

Gus started off very very stiff on the lunge line but for the most part seemed to work out of his issues. Definitely more noticeable going to the right then to the left - which is typical Gus. Once we began the undersaddle work, it became apparent that it was going to be one of those days.

To begin with, B had us doing 10m half-circles down the long sides. As the exercise progressed, it was almost a ribbon candy-like pattern down the arena's length. The goal in this exercise was to get Gus really bending around my inside leg and stretching through the outside. We then proceeded with our usual 3-loop serpentines, at the trot.

For whatever reason, yesterday we could not get Gus to move down and out. He was stuck in this goofy, uncomfortable jog-trot. It was even more apparent at the canter that he was just absolutely miserable. Gus definitely gets points for being a saint though.

We ended the lesson with some leg yield work on and off the rail at the trot. Basically a couple steps off the rail, then LY back on the rail, rinse & repeat. Then we worked on that down the quarter line. That seemed to be more difficult for Gus, for whatever reason. The last exercise we did was kinda like a saw-tooth pattern down the long side of the arena. To start with we took about three strides on the diagonal, then did a bit of a turn on the forehand before returning on the rail. Essentially, this exercise was supposed to work on the shoulders and loosening them up. Gus definitely felt the burn when performing this one. He was exceptionally good going the one direction (to the left, I think) but struggled to the right. End the end, he was a good boy about the whole situation.

After my lesson, while cooling out Gus (who was still undersaddle), B and I got to talking about why Gus was so miserable today. Not sure why he was... granted it was VERY cold and windy (like 20 something outside at the time), but she thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get him injected with Legend again. It's been since August... so he's probably due for another round. FWIW, he was bute'd before my lesson, like I have been doing for the past few weeks, but the vet will be out on Wednesday for a Legend injection.

Funny thing was, immediately after dismounting, Gus dropped and pee'd up a storm. I can seriously count on one hand how many times he's "pee'd" in public, and I've owned Gus for nearly 12 years. He's very modest. I'm thinking that had something to do with his reluctance to move forward... we'll see how he goes the next time I ride. Wish he would've just pee'd if he had to go that bad... poor guy!

He's Baaaacccckkkk!

2011-11-13T10:03:00.001-08:00

I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Or Gus for that matter.

But I think I've almost got Gus back. We had another nice ride Saturday afternoon. Gus definitely is very, very stiff starting out, so much so that I don't think we'll be able to avoid not lunging prior to riding. Thankfully, he does seem to warm up and become more fluid-moving after about 15 minutes of lunging. Feels weird to be that rider that needs to lunge her horse before riding... least in my defense it's not to settle him down, but instead to get him moving freely before I'm up on board.

So yesterday we worked the on the same exercises that we had worked on during my lesson the previous Wednesday. This included: small (10-15m) trot circles at every major letter (ABCE), shoulder-fores down the long side, trot serpentines, counter-canter and counter-canter to true canter figure-8s. Gus definitely is starting to develop a stronger canter, especially the (true) right lead canter.

My biggest issue, per say, right now is when I ask for the walk and give Gus a break he immediate nearly stops. If he could be moving in reverse he would be, as he is that unmotivated at the walk. So now when he gets his breaks he's got to keep marching forward. Only at the end of the ride can he just stumble along, if he so chooses.

I do feel like my legs (and therefore hands) are improving but that's easier said the done. Not using my legs so loudly and excessively is starting to become easier, but I do still need to think about it nearly every stride. Hopefully within another month or two of consistent riding my bad habit will be a thing of the past.

I don't think I had mentioned it before, but Gus's old turnout buddy, D, is no more. He's turned out with another horse and that horse's buddy is now back out with Gus. N and Gus have been turned out before with little to no issues. It's great knowing that neither one will be goofing off too much in turnout. Thanks to D though, I just received my first bill for fixing one of two turnout sheets that was destroyed. A whooping $42.75 to wash ($10) and fix a sheet. Sheesh. Thankfully the other one should be cheaper as it wasn't destroyed nearly as much. And neither Gus nor N are blanket destoryers... Still makes me mad though but I'm glad that Gus isn't being harassed anymore. He's too old for that.

I'm still wanting to get Gringo a new blanket though. Not entirely sure why as he rarely ever wears one. His Masta is just a tad too short, length wise. Least the drop doesn't make him look like a fat guy wearing an A-shirt. Just can't decide what type I want to buy... love the look of the Weatherbeetas but I've had issues in the past with fit. And I do like the design of the Amigos/Rhinos/Rambos but Gringo is a broad-shouldered boy... I guess we'll see where I can find a deal.

Lessons and Hooves

2011-11-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

Today was lesson day. I decided to switch things up and ended up giving Gus bute before my ride, rather then after. And I think it made a world of difference.

B commented on my nice, quiet legs today. I was so pleased with that comment. I've been trying VERY hard over the last two weeks to keep my legs nice and quiet, only asking when needed.

We ended up working on the same ol' stuff again today. After about 15 minutes of lunging, we proceeded to undersaddle work. First up, after walk work, was 15m trot circles at every major letter (ABCE). Once we got Gus bending well on the circles, we started working on 3-loop serpentines. Eventually we switched directions and repeated the exercises the opposite direction. We finished the trot work with shoulder-fores. At the beginning of each long side, we did a small 10m circle followed by shoulder-fore down the longside, ending with another 10m circle before proceeding along the short-side of the arena.

Canter work started with countercanter, right off the bat. Instead of making perfect corners and a nice rectangular-shaped arena, we made the arena a giant oval. Gus had a lot of difficulties with the countercanter when going to the right (so on the left lead). He constantly and consistently wanted to break down to a trot or change leads. When keeping him up off his right shoulder (inside shoulder on the countercanter ) he was able to maintain his leads better.

We switched directions and worked on the countercanter to the left (so on the right lead). This was a lot easier for Gus and we didn't have any baubbles, whatsoever. We ended the canter with just a regular ol' right lead canter, going to the right.

My goals for the next week are to continue working on the canter, perhaps throwing in more true canter now that Gus's hind end has gotten stronger. B could tell that Gus's hind end has strengthened and bulked up since earlier in the year, but I still think we are dealing with weakness issues. I guess that will be an on going battle.

B thinks that a lot of Gus's issues stem from weakness and sensitivity. Granted he should NOT be sore following a trim, it's quite possible that given his older age and his arthritis, trimming isn't as easy for him as it used to be. She brought up a good point about possibly doing hoof blocks this spring. So it'll be something I plan on thinking about if we have hoof issues again this spring. Hopefully we won't have to go there.

Moving along to Gringo. Today Gringo had his hooves trimmed again. He was at 9 weeks today and definitely needed the trim. Here's the photos from today. As usual, they are taken from left fore to the hinds and back to the right fore.

Gringo was so dusty/dirty today... it wasn't even funny. I tried hard to get him as clean as I could, but there's only so much you can do without throwing soap and water into the mix. Oh well, once it snows once or twice I won't have to worry. Gringo seems to self-clean come winter... that definitely comes in handy.

Gringo also was subjected to a deworming today as well. Just a dose of plain ol' Ivermectin, but it was definitely needed, that's for sure. Who knows if that'll help with the pot belly, but definitely won't hurt - that's for sure.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

2011-11-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm definitely not an old dog, but I am having to learn a "new trick". After riding on and off (mostly on) for over 20 years, I'm having to learn all over how to properly use my legs and hands. And boy, is that going to be a HUGE work in progress. I'm not entirely sure why my trainer decided a couple weeks ago to tackle that challenge, but she did. It's going...

Gus had been progressing fairly well. I truly felt like we had made some progress with bending/flexing, etc. And then the farrier struck. Go figure, he's off again. I wouldn't call it lame, but he is most definitely EXTREMELY short-strided undersaddle and on the lunge [see previous blog post regarding hooves]. He was trimmed last Wednesday (the 2nd) and that evening when I was out he was very choppy in the trot and had a disunited canter. Both directions were very disorganized... but it felt a bit more unorganized to the left then to the right... I think.

My last lesson was October 26th, since my BO came down with the flu/cold/etc last Wednesday. So since the 26th, I've only ridden like twice. Definitely trying to keep up with the anti-nagging that I do without even knowing it, but it's hard to do. I literally have to tell myself to GET MY LEGS OFF MY HORSE. Do you know how hard that is to do? I feel like I ride like a "dude", you know the city-slicker types that go to a "dude ranch"? Oh well. I'm trying and believe it or not, Gus is responding much better to this type of riding. If only I had started to change my habits years before.

Funny thing is, I think my resolution from 2010 is finally being put into effect. I distinctively recall stating to my BO/Trainer about this time last year that I wanted to work on Gus becoming more responsive to my aids. Well, he finally is and I must say that our rides are a bit more enjoyable.

I did manage to get out to see Gringo this past week as well, actually Thursday in fact. Gringo is such a good boy. I didn't really do anything at all with him, didn't even make it into the barn, to tell you the truth. Ended up just snapping some photos with the camera phone. He's very photogenic, even if he enjoys standing around poo...

I still think he looks preggo... but my MIL won't change the amount of hay he's being fed. It just isn't worth the fight, so atlass he's just a chubby gelding.

Hoof Montage

2011-11-07T16:21:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, Gus had his hooves trimmed again. Unlike recent trims, after this trim Gus was EXTREMELY sore. Only noticeable undersaddle and on the lunge, but enough to warrant a "this is from a trim" thought versus a "here we go again" thought, even though they are a bit one in the same. [<--- Sheesh, talk about a long, run-on sentence. Oops!]

I left a message for my BO/Trainer regarding Gus and his offness (I wouldn't call it lameness, per say). I guess the farrier is supposed be back out again this week sometime to trim more horses, so I asked her to check with him, seeing as he doesn't communicate well at all to me, unless I'm there in person. [<--- There I go again. Another run-on sentence.] We'll see where that leads. I'm doubting nowhere, but you never know.

Here's the photos from this past Wednesday's trim. As usual, they are taken from left fore to left hind, right hind to right fore.

Still trying to figure out what is causing that funky wavy crack in the left fore. I do believe it's been there for a while...

I'm really not pleased at all with how the fronts look. They look short-toed and a bit crushed in the heels. Sheesh, I think we're back to what we've been dealing years back. For reference sake, here's what the left fore has looked like since August 2009 through today. Hence the post title of "Hoof Montage".

August 2009

May 14, 2010 - Can we say "yuck"?

June 12, 2010

July 2, 2010 - Yikes, LONG toes!

December 16, 2010

February 13, 2011

February 19, 2011

March 2, 2011

March 9, 2011

April 6, 2011

May 11, 2011

June 17, 2011

July 4, 2011

July 6, 2011

August 12, 2011

September 27, 2011

November 2, 2011

I guess I'm not seeing such a dramatic change, overall in general, I'd say they are A LOT better then what I was dealing with in the 2010 year... but still. Uggh.

Another good lesson.

2011-10-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another good lesson day. In typical Gus fashion, he was EXTREMELY stiff and lazy to get going but once sufficiently warmed up, he was moving fairly fluidly.

The lesson was a repeat (minus the cavalletti) from last week. We started off really working on getting Gus to move down and out, but not necessarily forward - or as forward as we'd like him to normally be. So, we began with three loop serpentines working on strictly flexion and giving to the bit in his jaw. I was instructed to not let go of the reins (ie loosen my contact) until Gus gave. It's amazing how much more responsive he became to the more subtle commands. B kept after me about my hands, as I kept giving and taking, without really getting any response from Gus. Like I told her though, it took YEARS to develop this bad habit, so it'll take a while to undo the damage.

We also worked on leg yields from quarter line to the rail at the trot, in an almost tear-drop like pattern. Meaning once we reached the rail we did a 15m circle and repeated the exercise. Trot work also included working on big figure-8s, getting Gus to really bend and flex at X, where the transitions occurred. We also did 1 loop serpentines, with a 10m circle back to the rail at X. Those really made Gus concentrate on bending and flexing in the correct direction.

In the canter, we again worked only on counter canter. B really feels that making him worked just a bit harder at the canter is better then making things too easy. If it's too easy, Gus just has to work that much less and is quicker to offload weight from his hind end... and it's in his hind end where we want him to be carrying more weight, not on the front. So, off we went on the counter canter. Very easy counter canter, just big ovals, but that made Gus really work on stretching down and out. Gradually we'll work on making Gus work in a more correct frame at the canter, but for now he just needs to maintain the canter (not switching leads - found out we do have a flying change hidden in there after all) and stay off his forehand.

So, my plan is to keep working on the same stuff during my own time. Maybe trying to toss in some 1 loop serpentines at the canter? We'll see. Definitely happy with the progress thus far.

Clipping Time!

2011-10-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

I debated long and hard about clipping Gus again this year. Since the fall of 2002, Gus has been clipped in the fall, with the exception of the one year he spent at my in-laws, pre-wedding. It has made life so much easier for me and it's made Gus much more comfortable. He is likely the hairiest horse at the barn, probably has the most active sweat glands as well. Haha.

So today was D-day. I was armed and ready. Yesterday, I purchased two new #10 blades and with a recently acquired blade that was used just once to clip Hope, my parents' dog, I thought I'd be good and ready. Think again. By the time it was all said and done with, I had gone through all three new blades, plus about three old #10 blades that were dull along with three #10 WIDE blades. Uggh! Definitely should've washed Gus prior to clipping. That was my problem again this year. Like the saying goes, the difference between a bad clip and a good clip is two weeks. So just two weeks until Gus looks fabulous.

Without further ado, here's some photos from today. This first group is from before the clip.

And here he is, nearly four hours later. Uggh. Remind me to thoroughly WASH Gus next go around. As it only took an hour to do the front 2/3rds... and nearly three hours to do the rump. Uggh.

I'm debating about getting up early tomorrow to ride before work. I don't have to be in until 1pm. So, if I drag myself outta bed by 7am, I'd have plenty of time to get a quick workout in before hand.

I didn't update this blog at all after my lesson last week, but on Thursday I had another really nice ride on Gus. He was such a good boy. We basically did a copycat ride from the day before, just without the poles - I didn't want to drag them all out.

Anyways, more to come. Here's hoping that Gus stays sound and keeps progressing forward.

Amazing!

2011-10-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had an amazing lesson. It was our first lesson since (if I"m not mistaken) mid-August. Crazy! But Gus was truly amazing. We worked pretty hard, all things considered.

The lesson started off with some lunging, just to see what we were dealing with and to get Gus moving out and forward. Once the undersaddle work commenced, it was forward and flexing at the walk. And quiet legs! I have a major flaw of nagging Gus constantly - and I guess after nearly 12 years of ownership (and the development of a really bad habit) B wants to change that. So, quiet legs it was. And Gus was so much better because of that.

We worked on cavallettis and circles tonight. Starting off with the usual (haha) serpentines at the trot, we quickly proceeded to working with the cavalletti. B set the poles up down the center line, with three before X and three placed after X. The exercise was trot down the centerline, through the first set of poles, then a "figure-8" set of 10m circles, proceeded by continuing down the centerline through the final set of poles. Once we hit the long side, at E or B we through in a 20m canter circle. Rinse and repeat the other direction. Eventually we changed it up and instead of canter circles, we worked on moving off the leg (baby leg yields). Gus definitely does not want to move off the right leg (leg yielding to the left) ... but that's not really unusual.

We ended the evening with some canter work. First it was 15m canter circles on the short sides, followed by cantering down the long side on the second track. Followed by canter across the short diagonal and doing a few laps in the counter canter. Gus had a very hard time keeping the right lead canter going to the left (if I'm remembering that correctly). We ended up with some flying changes. Fun!

Regardless, Gus was a very.good.boy. tonight. I'm so very, very happy with him. He did get some banamine prior to our lesson, just to take the edge off. He'll be getting pre-med'd for the next few weeks, just as a preventative - though it'll be with bute.

The plan will be to keep working on keeping my legs quiet and getting Gus in front of my leg and flexing. We need to build his strength back up, so even if we don't have forward we need to have contact, connection and flexion. The forwardness will come with time. I'm not worried.

Now, next big question. Clip? or not to clip? Uggh!

Almost there...

2011-10-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

But not quite. So the last time I was up on Gus was on Friday, the 7th, and we had a pleasant enough ride in the indoor. But it was far from perfect.

The truth of the matter is, while Gus isn't lame-lame he is off. B was giving a lesson in the indoor while I was riding, and during a moment of downtime for the other rider, I asked her what she thought. She agreed that he wasn't lame and thought that he looked "ouchy" and tenderfooted in the indoor. Heck, that was what I was dealing with back in August. Sheesh. Now I'm really not sure what to think but we both agree that there isn't any harm in continuing to work Gus, as long as he doesn't get any worse.

So, for the time being, Gus is back into work. Mostly walk/trot with a little canter thrown in for good measure. On Friday, we worked mainly on bending and suppling in the bridle. Granted, he would have benefited greatly from some lunge work, but that just wasn't feasible with the other rider riding. Just not enough room.

Wednesday will be the first time I've done a lesson on Gus since like August, I think. I know we did nothing in September... and I don't think there was much, if any, productiveness in August. Oh well, should be entertaining, to say the least. I would really like to work with some cavalletti again, to really get Gus stretching out and over his topline. Maybe I'll suggest that to B. Regardless, I'm dreading the "cooling out" period with Gus. He's a hairy beast right now and just the thought of work makes him sweat. Uggh.

It's October and it's 80 outside!

2011-10-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Nothing like having an Indian Summer. It's been absolutely GORGEOUS these last few days. And rumor has it, the weather is supposed to last until the weekend. For like the 8th day in a row, temperatures have been in the mid-70s to low 80s. Absolutely perfect! I can't complain at all, except that I'm stuck at work. Which stinks.

On Monday afternoon and again Tuesday morning, I had some nice rides on Gus. Granted I wasn't really able to gauge his soundness, but we were riding outside. So who cares? Gus was definitely sound enough to do some w/t/c in the grassy fields. We even threw in a few gallops stretches (we're talking a dozen strides or so) for good measure. Gus was definitely feeling up on Monday, as he proceeded to attempt to dump me about three or four times. Silly boy.

The plan is to ride again tomorrow, but this time (unfortunately) I need to work Gus in the arena to see what I'm really dealing with. We tried riding in the outdoor arena, but he still had some issues with the footing. So not sure if it's just footing related or if he's still having some lameness issues. The indoor arena should give me those answers. For what it's worth, Gus seemed content working outside. He was much better on Monday then he was on Tuesday, but he was still comfortable both days.

In other news, Gus now has a turnout buddy again. This is the first time in about two years that Gus has been turned out with another horse. D got moved into Gus's turnout because his turnout was needed for another horse. D is also suffering with stifle issues, so hopefully the two boys won't play too rough. I really can't deal with another issue - not when we're finally getting to the root of the front end issues.

On Monday I went out to see Gringo again. I talked with my MIL a lot as well. Mainly about Gringo and his training and his lump. The lump, while still present, is going away - albeit slowly. I'm thinking about calling Anoka Equine and seeing about getting a vet out. Gringo is probably due to have his teeth floated anyways... I don't think it's been done in like three years (even though he's checked annually, at the minimum).

Regarding Gringo's training, MIL thinks (and I agree - WOW!) that he should be sent off for professionally training, once we're reached the point to get him under saddle. I think he'd truly benefit from someone else doing the initial saddle work. However, being nearly 9 (in February), hopefully the past is the past and getting him going under saddle will be simple enough. Knowing Gringo, though, that won't be the case. MIL thinks we should work with a "butt rope" to get Gringo used to having things up behind him. He does NOT like the butt rope and back when we were doing ground driving, we had more then our fair share of incidents involving a lunge line, his tail and bolting. You figure out the rest. Anyways, MIL wants me to start working with one again... wouldn't hurt anything, anyways. Well, except maybe me.

Witches, Goblins and Christmas Ornaments, Oh My!

2011-10-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well, today I opted to just take Gus for a spin outside. The weather was amazing - cool but sunny. Absolutely ideal fall weather, least in my opinion.

Tomorrow is the fall show at the barn, so everyone is getting everything ready. This also means that the cross-country course is decked out with fun decorations. This year, B (the BO) went over board. Everything looks amazing, but I'm SO GLAD that I won't be competing. There's no way that Gus would not look at the jumps. They are down right busy, in a non-obnoxious way.

Anyways, I took some photos during our ride. Nothing amazing... kinda hard to ride and take photos at the same time. I'm thinking about getting my mom to come to the barn next weekend, weather permitting, to take some photos of Gus and I. Since I wasn't able to compete at all this year, I never did get any nice photos of Gus and I. Heck, I need to get some new ones of Gringo and I as well...

Isn't the above jump just scary? Fortunately, there are jumps located on either side of the above jump. The baby beginner novice jump is off to the right, the beginner novice off to the left. So, they actually don't have to jump between the costumes.

Gus was also decided to be a goofball this afternoon. This is what greeted me when I walked out to get him from his turnout this afternoon. Granted, these photos were taken after I had brought him into the barn.

I personally thought he was trying for the unicorn look. So, I just added a bit of fluff to the ear piece and viola! Instant unicorn.

An no, I don't think Gus appreciated being decked out as a unicorn. Good thing that I didn't go searching for my Twinkle Toes hoof polish or body glitter. Haha.

Gus was also delighted with the fact that he was able to enjoy an apple again today. He hasn't had one (to the best of my knowledge) in probably a good year or so. He does occasionally get pieces of an apple from the barn staff, but because of his insulin resistance and subsequent Cushings, I really monitor his diet closely. I figured since he was being such a good boy and I had a tasty Honeycrisp apple that was just beckoning Gus... well, the rest was history. As usual, I attempted to document it with photos... but they kinda ended up blurry.

Mmmm. An apple.

Hmm. It's a bigger apple then what I normally get. Wait! I don't get apples any more.

Shoot. I'm losing it!

Mmm. Pure bliss. Pure satisfaction. Did I mention that I LOVE apples? Cause I do.

Oops! Not done yet. Least I'm getting a lot out of this apple.

Mmm.

Nom. Nom.

<insert mega slurping sounds> Nom. Nom.

This is... nom. nom. ... very good.... nom. nom.

It's hard to talk... got my mouth full...

Nom. Nom.

Mmm. Tasty! I love me some good, crisp, juicy apples. Do you think I can be a spokeshorse for the Honeycrisp apples? Cause they are just amazing!

First Ride of the Fall

2011-09-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

Well, today I opted to start working with Gus again. He was cleared on Friday by Dr. N to resume work and yesterday J, the farrier, didn't find anything new. I opted to take things really easy starting out. We ended up doing about 20 minutes of lunge work before I hopped up for about 10 minutes. Definitely not back 100%, but he seemed better today then he did a few weeks back when I worked with him last.

We only did w/t/c on the lunge and just mainly walking with a trot thrown in on both directions while under saddle. Gus seems a lot better if I can keep him off his forehand, but that's easier said then done. Least when we left the arena I didn't have any "drunken sailor" moves. Score for this team!

So, yesterday Gus has his hooves trimmed again. Like I previously mentioned, both Dr. N and J cleared Gus's hooves (ie no more abscesses). Here's the photos from today. As usual, it goes LF, LH, RH, RF.

I also managed to take more body shots of Gus today as well. He was extremely impatient outside, hence the ugly faces and crappy body stances. Oh well. He needs to learn a bit of patience.

Gus is attempting to let himself out... he's kept repeatedly popping the gate door. Good thing I latched it.

I wish he had a forelock... for whatever reason it almost disappeared entirely this summer.

I think, weight-wise, Gus looks pretty dang ideal. You can easily palpate his ribs and depending on his stance, they are visible... but not entirely. He's still getting between 1lb and 1 1/4lbs of Triple Crown Senior twice a day. He's still on 10g MSM and he's now on 1oz of Quiessence and 1 "scoop" of Grand Hoof pellets. The change in magnesium and hoof supplements is due to the fact that it was cheaper to switch then to stay with the old product.

After visiting with Gus, seeing Gringo was my next stop. He's got this lump underneath this jaw, like between his jowls. My MIL noticed it last Friday, but didn't mention anything to me until yesterday as she knew I was going out of state for the weekend and didn't want me to worry. Gringo is eating/drinking/pooping/peeing like normal but the lump was originally about the size of a ping pong ball. When I head about it yesterday, I assumed it was a tooth issue, but now I'm not so sure. We plan on monitoring it for another few days and if it still hasn't resolved itself by the weekend, I'll be calling the vet to have someone out to check him out. On the plus side, it is soft and squishy - however, it's located in and around where I'd think a lymph node is, and I'm not sure if we're dealing with something more then just a simple lump. Hopefully that's all it is.

Gringo seems to be doing well enough otherwise. Still not sure what's going to happen with Jade, his pasture mate. My now ex-SIL-to-be hasn't been out to visit her since she and my BIL broke up. Rumor had it that she was moving Jade to a pasture board situation for like $50/month... didn't sound like a good place for Jade but she's not my horse or my responsibility. My MIL is a bit worried, she really cares for Jade and wants what's best for her... so we'll see what happens after the first of the month. My bet is that Jade is still around... the ex had more then a few screws loose.

I also finally dewormed Gringo again. I haven't done that in forever... my bad. So today Gringo got a full dose of Equimax. In two weeks I'll be giving him a dose of just plain ol' ivermectin... then we'll get him back on a schedule again. Perhaps that's why he looks like he's 9 months pregnant....

Here's a few photos of Gringo from today.

He was so happy to see me. Him and Jade came trucking up from the bottom of the field. It's always nice (and very appreciated) when you don't have to walk out to get your horse. Makes me feel like I'm actually appreciated.

The stall is very uneven... he's really not built that far down hill. Trust me.

Anyways, we'll see what the weekend brings for both boys. I'm hoping that Gus turns around and becomes sounder (hopefully the bute prior to work will help with that) and Gringo's lump goes away. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Hannibal

2011-09-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Meet Hannibal (aka Gus).

After Gus's nasty behavior last month when the chiropractor was out, we came up with a unique solution to Gus's attempts at biting people. A grazing muzzle. Worked wonders and he was so ashamed to be seen wearing it as well. Was quite comical.

So, Dr. K found that Gus has more or less the same issues as he's had in the past, just to a lesser extent this time around. Most of the issues were isolated to the right side of the neck, the lumbar region of the back and the sacroiliac joint. For the most part, all on the right side of his body. He was also out at the poll again, so he was adjusted there as well.

I definitely think we made some progress, as far as behavior goes. B, the barn owner, actually gave Dr. K the grazing muzzle to use on other clients. Kinda funny, but it should help make her job safer. FWIW, Gus would never try doing what he did last time with me. He respects me. I don't think he has any respect for C, the barn "manager". Which is too bad (though I secretly think she doesn't like Gus - which horses can sense when you don't like them).

I had a chance to soak and rewrap Gus again today. He's looking a bit better but I honestly can't tell if he's healing up or what. Dr. N will be out at the barn tomorrow to look at another horse, so I'm going to have her recheck Gus again as well. If he doesn't need to say wrapped, then we'll pull the wraps. Otherwise hopefully on Monday, when J's out to retrim Gus, he'll be able to let me know what he think. Haha - if he'll even talk to me.

I guess we'll see what Monday/Tuesday brings for us. Not sure when I'll be able to make it back out to the barn because I'll be out of town until Sunday evening (going to IA/WI to see family and go to the apple orchards - family tradition).

Wednesday, Day 14 of Abscessing

2011-09-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Today is day number 14 of the second round of abscessing. I guess if you were to count from day one, back in August, we're on day number 36. Yikes. That's depressing, when counting from the day it was first diagnosed. Anyways, here's the abscess photos from today. Like ususal, I did a 15 minute espom salt soak followed by a hot pad of Animalintex, cotton, vet wrap and finally topped off with some duct tape.

Gus was a bit embarrassed by the hot pink name tag. Haha.

I did take some new body conformation shots as well. Just for comparison sake, here's Gus from today:

And here are photos from May 2010. Granted he's in his spring coat - clipped, but weight wise, he was still pretty dang skinny. Just comparing his neck muscles... it's amazing. And the above photos, taken today, show Gus about 6 weeks out of work. He looked a bit better at the end of July, muscle-tone wise.

Wish Gus still had his mane. Sadly he decided to rub a chunk of it out and it just never grew back right. So we'll see how it grows over the winter.

I also took new photos of Gus's hooves in general. As usual, they are taken left front to hinds, ending with the right front.

I already posted this photo above, but note to the left of the abscess - the hoof wall. Doesn't it it look odd? In the pictures posted above (the abscess ones) you can see the odd separation. I'm not entirely sure what's up with that - I plan on leaving a note for J. Then again, why should I even bother when I never get any answers?

Ugg. Note the flaring of the hoof wall. Yikes.

And the quarter crack... sheesh, when will it end?

This hind (right) hoof is also flaring badly. For whatever reason this hind has been having more issues flaring then the left, but regardless, IMO, both hinds are flaring badly - and they shouldn't be. Again, the hooves are only at 6 weeks out - Monday when Gus is retrimmed, it'll be 6.5 weeks.

God, the bottom of his RH looks like a dinner plate. Sheesh!

Underrun heels much?

Anyways, I think there is not a lot to be desired with these hooves. No telling what I can get the farrier to do. But I'm thinking something needs to change again. Maybe I should run things by the vet?

Fall Colors

2011-09-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

I need to get more photos of Gringo and of course more of Gus sans sheet, but here's a few photos I took the other day of Gus, chilling out in his paddock. Every fall Gus turns this absolutely gorgeous shade of red... hard to explain, but it's a beautiful color. I typically clip Gus every fall, usually by mid-September, but due to the fact that Gus is off, it doesn't make sense to clip him if I'm not able to do any riding.

So, without any further ado, here are the photos.

I definitely need to get some more photos, but sans the sheet. The sheet hides so much.

I was also able to take some photos of Kherrosel the other day. I'll see if I can somehow sneak some photos of his summer sores, but imagine this. Raw meat on a joint. A joint that moves CONSTANTLY. That's what Kherro's wounds look like and the whereabouts as well. Poor guy. He was in such pain that he didn't even eat. That's part of the reason why he's skin and bones. He's looking a lot better though and has his appetite back as well.

Here's a few photos that I took of Kherro the other day. He's bandaged, wrapped and wearing Cashel fly wraps as well. Better then 24/7 fly sheet, neck cover, belly band, leg wraps and a fly mask AND a screened in stall. Sometimes things aren't better in Florida.

Such a pretty boy. I'm hoping for B's sake that he makes a full recovery, well I suppose for Kherrosel's sake as well. He deserves better then this. I'll do updates as I can, with Kherro's progress.

Abscess Updates... Long Overdue

2011-09-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've been horrible about updating the blog this past week. My bad... life just got in the way, you know how that goes. Anyways, as I type, we are into day number 12 of dealing with this latest round of abscessing. Sheesh. Still no end in sight as it's still draining. Go figure. I was out this past Wednesday (the 14th), Friday (the 16th) and Saturday (the 17th). Nothing seems to have changed much. Here's the photos from the past three trips to the barn.

Wednesday, 14th (Day 7)

Friday, 16th (Day 9)

Saturday, 17th (Day 10)

It's obviously looking a lot better, as evident from the last couple of photos I took on Saturday, but still no where near healed. Farrier won't be out until next Monday, so hopefully everything will stay together until then. I'm still a bit concerned about the hoof wall that seems to be separating a bit - it's to the "northwest" of the abscess - left side of hoof if looking at the photos posted above. Not sure if the white line is separating or if the hoof wall is just seriously chipping. Gus will be at 6.5 weeks when he's trimmed again on Monday... not sure if we need to bump up the timing or just keep up what we are doing.

Anyways, I wasn't able to make it to the barn yesterday or today. Tomorrow isn't looking so hot either (due to my work schedule), so I asked the BO to see to Gus and make sure his hoof stays wrapped. I had kept his Soft Rides off for the past few days, just to give his hooves a break... but with the little bit of rain we got yesterday, I'm not sure if the duct tape boot is enough. I suppose I'll have more information and photos again by Wednesday or Thursday (I'll be out to the barn Wednesday night to soak/rewrap).

Hoof Pictures, again

2011-09-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to make it out to the in-laws this past Friday. I kinda killed two birds with one stone - saw Gringo and took photos of his hooves (about 9 days post-trim) and picked up feed for Gus.

So, here's the photos I took this past Friday. As usual, the are taken in order of left front, left rear, right rear and right front.

I'm still not overly pleased with the oblong-looking hooves. It's fairly evident in all the sole shots that I took - though I'm thinking that I like how his hinds look this time around. I guess we'll see how things look about 5 more weeks down the road. I do not want to wait until 8 weeks have passed... that's just about two weeks too long.

I thought that I had kept the photo of my "assistant" from the hoof photo shoot, but it doesn't look like I uploaded it with the others. One of my MIL's rootsters decided to give pointers. Was pretty funny to have a rooster "cockadoodle-doodling" above me as I was taking pictures.

Hoof Troubles

2011-09-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Besides dealing with all the abscess drama, Gus's hooves are becoming more and more brittle. Now that they are kept under wraps 24/7, the chipping isn't getting any worse, least at the moment, but boy do they look pretty crappy. I'm still questioning the toe length on Gus... it looks awfully long in some of these pictures.

This first group of photos is from September 8th:

Note the nice chipped outside hoof wall and toe (this is the LF).

Note the chipped outer hoof wall on the RF.

This is a view of the inside of the RF. Very chipped.

These next photos were taken today, September 11th:

Again, I'm just amazed at the poor hoof quality that Gus has again this year. This is two years in a row that we've been dealing with crappy feet. I'm not 100% sure that just the weather is to blame (hot/dry, then hot/wet, rinse and repeat) but I don't know what else to blame. It's frustrating to Gus to have to deal with all these hoof issues, but there isn't much that I can do about it. Gus is still on a hoof supplement - currently he's on SmartHoof pellets. I'm looking at switching to Grand Hoof pellets as it is comparable to what he's on already, plus it supplies some MSM as well. We'll see. I need to reorder supps ASAP anyways.

Besides dealing with the crappy front hooves, Gus has also developed a hoof crack in his RH. I had originally posted photos of the hoof crack last week... here's some new ones from last Thursday.

At least it's not progressing... but still frustrating. Unfortunately Gus still has to go another two weeks until he gets trimmed again. Here's hoping that we're over these abscess issues by then and the quarter crack doesn't further develop.

Abscess, Round Two

2011-09-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

So last Thursday I had Dr. N back out to recheck Gus's LF hoof. He was still "off" on it, but not all the time and no real rhyme or reason. Go figure, typical Gus-style of lameness.

Rather then even bother pulling out the x-ray machine (which is the direction that I was mentally headed with Gus's lameness issues) Dr. N pulled out the hoof testers and hoof knife. Found another abscess. Same hoof, same area, just a tad farther into the middle of the sole.

Gus was VERY tender in this general area when the hoof testers were applied. He was not at all happy, and who can blame him?

So, back to the whole soaking, wrapping, booting routine - least for another week or two, until we're hopefully for sure over this abscess crap.

Here's photos from today's session. The original wrap that I applied on Thursday morning lasted all the way until today. Awesome that it lasted so long, but crappy because it really should have been changed daily - least during these first few days where risk of infection is greater.

You can tell that it's definitely still oozy, especially notable in the second picture, pictured above. I was amazed how much stuff was on the Animalintex pad that I had used on the original wrap. It was pretty disgusting. Least I know the wrap is working though. That makes me happy.

So, this time around, I'm changing the wrapping up - just a little bit. Underneath it all, Gus is having a hot pad of Animalintex applied.

Followed by a generous portion of rolled cotton. This stuff is thickly compressed cotton padding. Think something like a billion cotton balls all compressed together, then multiply that by a 100. That's what you get. It's a nice, soft padding.

Followed up by the REAL vetwrap. I typically use about a 1/2 roll of vet wrap per wrap, give or take a little.

So, here's what the final product looks like, once applied.

So, Gus is also back in his Soft Rides. Those boots have come in so handy. I really should get some new inserts for them... but well, just haven't got the money at the moment to splurge on them. At over $60 a pair, I've got better uses for my hard earned money.

Gringo - Video At Last

2011-09-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well, today I was finally able to get half-way decent video of Gringo on the lunge. We were supposed to have the farrier out at 9am but somewhere along the lines, the time was changed to 11am. I never got the memo. Oh well, so with a whole hour and a half to kill (I had already done everything that I needed to do with Gringo prior to the original 9am appointment), I decided to work with Gringo on the lunge line. He was a good boy.

We ended up working on w/t/whoa again. The couple times I asked for the canter, I got the wrong lead and a very resistant horse. Just not worth it. So instead it was forward and obedient. Please ignore my obnoxious voice... still haven't figured out the whole "music" thing on Youtube yet.

Lunge w/o side reins

Lunge w/ side reins

And I wished to get photos of Gringo's hooves post-trim, but my cellphone had died... so hopefully I can make it out the barn here in the next few days to get photos. I did talk to L about bringing back Gringo's toes. He said he trims by the white line and always addresses any flares. Gringo definitely needed this trim as he was flaring badly... sheesh it's amazing how fast his hooves grew in 8 weeks. I guess the next trim will be at 6 weeks and we'll go from there.

Bute = Sound

2011-09-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well, like I previously mentioned, Gus gets his own post today. So, I haven't worked with Gus since I last posted and I was a bit leery as to what I'd find once I got out there. Definitely wasn't thinking he'd be doing okay... turns out, he kinda was.

He walked into the barn fairly evenly and was weight-bearing on all four legs. I had brought out his Cavallo Simple Boots, just on the off chance that he was off, I could try those on him to see if they made any difference. Good new was, I didn't need to use them at all.

As per our last few workouts, I recorded Gus's work as best as I could. Turns out I need to angle my cell phone more, I ended up filming more of the ceiling then of the arena. Oh well, I tried.

Just before we started working, Gus decided to have a moment. Here he is.

I'm not sure what he's staring at, but he wasn't moving... just staring out the arena window.

See below for the videos of Gus's work from today.

Lunging w/o side reins

Lunging w/ side reins

Undersaddle work

I also noticed that Gus has developed a quarter crack on the outside of his RH hoof. I don't recall it being there a few days ago. Gus's next trim isn't scheduled until the 26th of September, so hopefully his hooves will hold up to a 6 week trim. The last two trims have been done at four week intervals because of all the bad cracking he's been having.

Here's a few pictures of the quarter crack.

So, in general, Gus seems slightly better. Granted, he is on 1gram of bute daily and has been since his last ride. I also gave him another gram after I rode. Gus was looking really good when we left the arena. No funky steps, whatsoever. Maybe we are making progress.

I did talk to B as well, regarding Gus. Turns out my message (voicemail/email) I left Dr. N was pretty jumbled up. So Gus never did get looked at. I'm still thinking about x-raying the LF, just to see if any more changes are occurring. Especially since we know that back in January, his P2 was tilted a bit (that or there is something messed up with the P3). I guess I need to figure if I want Gus seen again... cause Cherry is leaving for Florida next week. She got "traded" for an Arabian gelding who used to board out at the barn. He's got "summer sores" (aka sweet itch, neck threadworms, etc) and just is absolutely miserable. His mom contacted B and asked to see if she would take him. Somehow a trade was made. Hopefully Cherry finds a good job down in Florida... she deserves it. So, Kherrosel (I think that's how it's spelt - think carousel) will be back to the barn, after being gone for probably at least 10 years.

I opted to not have a lesson this week again, seeing as Gus still isn't back to his old self, though he seems to be doing better. I'm aiming for next week. I'm scheduled to work again this weekend, so I should be able to get rides in on Tuesday and Wednesday, for sure. I'm still undecided at this time if I'll be riding Thursday before work. But hopefully Gus is on the upswing of things.

Happy LABOR Day!

2011-09-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

So, Labor Day should be a day of some good ol' fashioned R & R (rest and relaxation), right? Well, after a long 3-day weekend (finally, first one all summer!) I finally had a chance today to go out and see the boys. I saw Gus first, but he'll get his own post here in a few minutes. Gringo first.

I haven't been out to see Gringo in a bit, probably about 10 days or so. But all in all, he seems to be doing great. I think he truly is a bit bored with life. All he does is eat, sleep, p & p. It's a life of leisure, if you ask me, but I truly think he'd enjoy doing more with himself. Needless to say, my MIL agrees but I just don't have the guts to get up on Gringo, once we're back to that point. She insists that my husband can get up on Gringo, or better yet, his best friend. The fact of the matter is, I don't want anyone I know getting up on Gringo that I know personally... god forbid he does something stupid again, I just don't want anyone to get hurt. I wouldn't want a professional to get hurt either, but they "break" horses for a living, so would carry (I would hope anyways) adequate liability/accident insurance. I would just feel better if I was someone else getting on Gringo for the first time.

Today, Gringo got a good grooming and that was it. I had wanted to do some work with him, but I was a bit overdressed (had a hoodie on from this morning, it was a breezy 49 degrees when I got up) and just anxious to get back home.

On Wednesday morning Gringo is getting his hooves trimmed again. He is 8 weeks out on Wednesday and I think I waited two weeks too long. He's really long and has a lot of breakage going on, especially with the RH. I'm planning on talking to L, the farrier, to see about bringing the toes back further. They are just too long. See for yourself.

A close up of the RH crack/chip.

It seems to me, but I'm no hoof expert, that Gringo's heels are a bit contracted and he's flaring, badly. Mind you he's sound on these hooves, but they certainly aren't pretty to look at. Uggh.

I ended up grooming him outside today as well and took the opportunity to get some good body shots. Or attempt to get some body shots. I accidentally deleted one of the side shots, so here goes.

Gringo is still eating ~ 1/3cup of alfalfa pellets daily along with his supps. He is still getting MagOx 56%, Mega Cell and MSM. Couldn't tell you how much hay he's getting, but I know my MIL is still supplementing hay, and the pasture has been FABULOUS this year. So, he's still a fattie... only so much I can do though regarding that (and she won't listen re: the hay situation).

Anyways, nothing else new regarding Gringo. He's feeling good and looking fairly good. Just need to see what we can do regarding his hooves. Hopefully we can get working on those.

Off undersaddle, but not on lunge?

2011-09-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

So, I was out to the barn last night to see how Gus was doing. Figured since I had canceled my lesson, I still needed to see how Gus was moving on the lunge and undersaddle. Took more videos as well.

Long story short, he is better on the lunge WITHOUT a rider and lame, essentially, with a rider. He started off okay with me up in the saddle, but as our ride progressed things got worse. He is extremely uncomfortable doing small circles more so when he goes to the right then to the left, if I'm remembering my directions correctly.

Here's the videos:

I ended up leaving his boots off, even though he seemed unsound upon leaving the arena (not sure how noticeable it is in the posted video above, video #4). Funny thing was, when I went to lead him back outside after I was done with him for the evening, he was moving sound and very freely. Go figure. I'm thinking it was because I had his evening grain in my hand. Haha.

Vet was supposed to come out today as well. I left her a note along with a link to the above mentioned videos. I'm not sure if she ended up looking at Gus or not, I left it up to her. He's definitely not comfortable so he's back on 1g of bute daily for the next week and a half, then we'll reevaluate things from there. So, here goes another long (hopefully not!) recovery.

Lameness, Day 13

2011-08-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

Uh huh. Gus is lame again. I can't necessarily blame the abscess, cause I'm not entirely sure that it's the root of all the issues, but it does seem like Gus is off on the left fore still. I'm more then a bit po'd, but there isn't much that I can do.

Here's some photos from today of the left front:

I ended up taking some videos of Gus walking and trotting today as well. The first two videos were taken in the barn aisle prior to me lunging him in the arena. I wish I had taken video just as he walked into the barn, because about 15 minutes prior to these video clips, he was head-bobbing lame on the left front and really walking oddly. Of course the video doesn't show any of that. Go figure.

This video is a side shot that shows the sequence of hoof landings. If you listen to the video, you can hear a slight hiccup when he lands on the right fore (slightly louder). I think this may be due to compensating for the bum left fore.

This video is shot from straight on. If I had taken this video just minutes before, you would've seen a very different walk from what you're seeing now. Unfortunately I wasn't able to obtain video footage that time. But this is Gus walking on the concrete barn aisle.

This was taken in the arena. I wish I had continued videoing even after my BO/Trainer walked into the arena. Because after I stopped recording, Gus ended up being pretty short and off on the left front while going to the left. He did eventually "work" out of it, but it he was still short-strided (although that is nothing new).

This video is taken as Gus left the arena. Typically when he's off, he'll leave the arena with a heavy head-bob and distinctively off on one of the fronts (least that has been the norm as of late). Go figure that he walked off "sound" on the concrete.

Anyways, I ended up cancelling my lesson that I have scheduled for Wednesday. First time in ages that I've had to cancel so many lessons, but it's worth it if we can get to the bottom of everything.

I did end up hearing back from the chiropractor regarding Gus, but I still haven't received the paperwork. Here's what she had to say about Gus:

Gus was definitely quite sore on Monday. He was still short on his RF and fairly short behind. He was very sore in his low back and pelvis. I also did a lot in his neck. I felt like I made a lot of progress in his neck. However, I do think that I should see him next month after his abscess has resolved and then hopefully I can make more progress in his low back and pelvis.

So, Gus is scheduled to be seen again on September 22nd. I wish the chiro appointments were cheaper, but I guess I shouldn't complain, as $110 is fairly cheap, all things considered. Gus will also been seen by J, the farrier, on the 22nd as well. Busy day, that's for sure.

I guess my plan is to lunge Gus again on Wednesday and see what we've got. He's currently not on any pain meds as he doesn't seem to be in that much pain, and honestly is walking just fine outside in his paddock. I did end up putting his Soft Rides back on, complete with the normal inserts. Hopefully by Wednesday he'll be feeling a bit better.

Abscesses SUCK! (As does any lameness issue, really).

The Boys

2011-08-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

In addition to going out to tend to Gus, I was out to see Gringo as well. Gringo seems to be doing well enough, I wish I had more time to work with him, but working full time and trying to manage everything else, he's once again on the back burner. At least the seems to manage fine with minimal handling from me. And thankfully my MIL loves him, so he gets the attention he deserves from her.

Here's so photos of Gringo and Jade (his pasture buddy aka girlfriend) from today:

And here's some photos of Gus from today, enjoying a few minutes munching nice grass from the uncut hay pasture.

Abscess, Day 8

2011-08-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's officially been a week since Gus was diagnosed with an abscess in his left front hoof. After talking to the BM and the BO, I opted to leave Gus's wrap off today to see how things go. The draining has stopped and the abscess seems to be closing up. So, no more wraps for the time being. Thank GOD.

So today I ended up soaking his hoof for 20 minutes in epsom salts. Then, that was it. Done. Finite. I'm hoping this is the last of the hoof issues, least for a few months.

Here's photos from today:

Below are photos of the lovely sore that Gus has obtained on his left pastern/heel area. This is why I hate wrapping his hooves, as this is what happens. Poor guy. Thankfully he'll heal fairly quickly without any ill effects.

Abscess, Day 7

2011-08-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well, things are looking good for Gus. Today is day 7 and I from what I can tell, we're done with the draining aspect of this whole ordeal. So on to just wrapping/booting for protection.

Today I opted to not reboot Gus. I guess Dr. K recommended Gus be booted on both fronts, so he was wearing his Soft Rides sans pads all day yesterday and again today. However, the barn got over three inches of rain overnight and it sounded like Gus was wearing galoshes. Poor guy!

So, instead of wearing boots, Gus is just wrapped on the left front with vetwrap and duck tape. I doubt it'll even last the night, it's so wet out there, but I figured his hooves to stand a breather from the boots for at least a night.

I also had the opportunity to lunge Gus today. Today is the first time in over a week that I've watched him go. I didn't think he looked too bad so I guess I'll take it easy and plan on maybe a ride either Thursday or over the weekend sometime.

Here's the photos from today:

What's upsetting me about this hoof is the separation that is occurring on the outside of the hoof wall. It's fairly evident in the last two photos, but it's just to the left of the abscess. Not sure what the heck is going on and I think whatever it is, it's new - I don't recall the separation being there a few days ago. So, I guess I'll be monitoring that from now on as well too.

Also, I guess Gus was a little you-know-what yesterday for Dr. K. Striking and biting, knocked Dr. K off her boxes and bit C (the BM) in the chest. Thank GOD he just got her shirt. He can be a real sh*t, but he doesn't typically try that stuff with me - or else the chain goes on. I'm not sure if they ever threw a chain on Gus, but it sounds like he needed it. He's got better manners then that, but I think C is a bit afraid of Gus.

Anyways, I'm not sure what all Dr. K found or didn't find as I wasn't there (obviously), but she didn't leave me a note either. So, I guess I'll be emailing her to find out what she did or didn't find.

Abscess, Day 6

2011-08-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

Well, today is day 6 of the abscess. And like the forgetful person I can be, I totally forgot to get photos on Saturday of Gus's hoof. As of Saturday, it looked like the abscess had stopped draining so that's always a good sign.

On Saturday morning I was out to the barn and unwrapped/soaked/rewrapped Gus's hoof. I wasn't able to make it out to the barn on Friday due to my work schedule, so I relied on the BO/BM to rewrap Gus's hoof. I'm not entirely sure if they did or not, to tell you the truth. Doesn't really matter though as long as his hoof is kept wrapped and debris-free.

Anyways, after soaking his hoof in epsom salts again and rewrapping, I opted to use Gus's Soft Ride boot sans pad instead of his Cavallo Simple boot. These boots (the Soft Rides) are super spendy but are a lot more breathable and a lot less irritating then the Cavallos. As of Sunday, the wrap and boot were still intact so I opted to not rewrap.

I had instructed my BO to rewrap Gus's hoof if need be today - for sure I'll be out tomorrow to take care of Gus, since I'll finally have an afternoon off again. Pictures for sure by tomorrow.

Today was also chiro day at the barn. Gus should have gotten adjusted again by Dr. K so we'll see what she had to say when I'm out at the barn tomorrow. Hopefully everything went well and if he had anything out of alignment, she was able to put everything back into place. I guess I'll know tomorrow.

Abscess, Day 2

2011-08-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Nothing new on the abscess front. Went out to the barn to see Gus again today and was able to soak his left front for 25 minutes today. I'm so proud of Gus being such a good and patient boy about standing still in the cross-ties.

After the soak, I applied an Animalintex poultice pad instead of the Magic Cushion. After doing a bit more research, I'm going to hold off on the MC until the abscess is done draining. Then maybe I'll go back to that.

Here's the photos from today. The first couple are of Gus chillin' in the cross-ties. The last two are of the abscess.

The brown bits right around the frog are leftover MC. The abscess itself is in the lower left part of the hoof.

I'm not able to make it out to the barn tomorrow, so B will be taking care of Gus's hoof for me. Plan is to go out again Saturday sometime to rewrap and then on Sunday is the big benefit show, so I'll have plenty of time to rewrap then as well.

Abscess. The kiss of death?

2011-08-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yep. So Dr. N was out today (didn't know they were coming out... oh well hopefully the BO got a heads up) and took a look at Gus. Turns out he, along with three other horses that were "lame", had abscesses. Sheesh! This is getting ridiculous. Last year was just like this, but earlier on - dealing with lame horses, that is.

So, according to the brief phone call/email from the BO, it turns out the abscess was located in the toe on the LF. Figures as much and perhaps that might make since why Gus was walking so oddly these past few days. Least we have a diagnosis - although I've been down this road many a times, maybe we're finally dealing with an abscess and not *cough cough* coffin bone fracture or *cough cough* laminitis.

My plan for this evening, instead of having a lesson, will be to do an epsom salt soak for Gus's hoof for as long as possible and then rewrap with probably Magic Cushion and then gauze/vet wrap.

I do plan on taking some photos... so we'll see if those come out at all or not.

ETA: Here's the photos from this evening. I was able to soak Gus's left front hoof for about 30 minutes in a heavily concentrated epsom salt soak. I don't think I've ever seen him so relaxed. He was just chilling in the cross-ties enjoying life, from the looks of it.

I opted to wrap him with a little Magic Cushion, followed by some sterile gauze, a small square of a paper bag and then vet wrap. I opted for just putting on the Cavallo boot instead of applying any duct tape. I have a feeling that I'm going to regret that move by tomorrow. Because as it was, the Magic Cushion was already seeping through the vet wrap before I applied the boot. Uggh.

Anyways, the abscess is quite evident in the photos. Very bloody still. So I guess I'll be wrapping until it dries up/over. Again, that's part of the reason why I'm second guessing the MC I applied tonight. I would have probably been better off just applying nothing but gauze and vet wrap. Oh well. Lessons learned.

Can we say "ouch"? Gus is such a trooper though.

I'll be taking daily photo updates as this thing progresses. I"m hoping that Gus recovers fast, but we'll see. Like everything else, Gus loves nothing more then to present a challenge.

Now I'm not sure what to think.

2011-08-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Well, like the title of this post states, I'm really not sure what to think about Gus right now. Today was the first time I've been out since Friday afternoon. Gus still had the Soft Ride boots on when I got to the barn today. Although they were extremely muddy and slightly off center, they seemed to have held up well enough. The only thing I wanted to do with Gus today was to make sure he was sound on concrete/pavement. Sure enough, after pulling the Soft Rides and cleaning out his hooves, he was.

So, after walking him up and down the barn aisle and making him make numerous small circles, both to the left and to the right, he was still sound and walking off comfortably. Again, not at all sure what to think.

Gus currently is sans boots for the time being and sans pain meds as well. He only got bute on Friday because he seemed so uncomfortable. Right now, he looks pretty dang good. We'll see what Tuesday holds for Gus.

I also went out to see Gringo this afternoon. Gringo seems to be doing pretty good himself, although still a bit too pudgy for my likes. I've had discussions with my MIL, but that doesn't seem to have gotten me anywhere. He's still on like 1/3c of alfalfa pellets a day plus his supps... hay-wise, though, I'm not sure how much he is getting. It should really be not much at all as the grass is very plentiful and rich right now, but I don't think that is the case (regarding the hay).

I didn't do much with him otherwise. Just a good grooming and brushing. He's still as sparkly clean as always, even when he's been rolling around. I'm amazed to have found a predominantly gray horse who stays fairly clean. Anyways, I'm hoping to get some time in to work with Gringo again in the next week or two.

So, what's new?

2011-08-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday Gus had his hooves trimmed again. And for the second time in a row, it had only been four weeks. Due to mainly the weather, Gus's hooves haven't been holding up as well as I'd like so rather then wait for six weeks to pass, I opted to have him trimmed earlier. Plus, being that he was off on that left fore, I wanted to have the farrier put some hoof testers on him.

Here's the photos from today, one day after the trim. As usual, the photos are taken from left fore, to left hind, right hind to right fore.

I'm not really sure what to think of the "squared off toes". The more they stay "on" the more they just look plain weird. They don't seem to be centered at all and I guess I'm not sure if the square is supposed to be in the center of the toe or on an edge... but the pictures aren't lying.

And on to other news, Gus is now off on what seems to be the left front. After our ride today, in which he was a bit of a butt though we were able to work through it, he started walking off on the concrete of the barn. Considering that we are dealing with Gus here, that in itself is nothing new... but being off to the extent in which he was is unusual.

I had a hard time figuring out which leg it was cause he was landing really hard on the right front. B said though that it was because he was loading his right front, so in all actuality, it was his left front that he was off on. Makes sense as that's the same leg that he had been favoring for a while now, just not to the extent that he was doing today.

So, off to let the farrier and vet know. Sheesh. And in talking to the B, she didn't think the farrier had applied hoof testers to Gus's left fore, even though I had left him a message to do so last week. Whatever. Kinda irks me that there isn't any communication, even though I try my hardest.

Gus is sounder with his Soft Rides on. So he'll be living in hoof boots for a while again. We'll reassess the situation here in the next day or two.

Lesson Time!

2011-08-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, today was lesson day again. And again we worked on more of the same ol' stuff. Gus definitely seems a bit short-strided, but only on his right hind. As much as I was thinking he was off on his left fore, my BO/Trainer didn't see it. It's quite possible that my mind is just playing games with me - it does that sometimes.

So, we started off the lesson with some lunge work, as always. Gus was reluctant to really move out and down - and that's where we were seeing the short-stridedness. Under saddle, we began with working on getting Gus down and round. Today, he was having none of it. He was sucking back a lot and wouldn't get ahead of my leg. It seemed like every other stride for a while was kick, spur, whip, rinse and repeat. Finally, Gus seemed to get with the program. To attempt to get him round and giving to the bit, we first worked on small 10-15m circles at the trot. These circles were done at R, S, V and P. That then proceeded into serpentines, with a 10m circle thrown in at A, C and either B or E, depending on the direction we were going.

After getting a nice forward trot - and round - we proceeded to the canter. We did 15m circles at A, E, C, and B - switched directions and repeated. Pretty simple canter work for the time being. We ended up ending the lesson with leg yields on the quarter line to the rail, then cantering a 15m circle once at the rail, then trotting - rinse and repeat.

My homework for this lesson is to work more on leg yields again - incorporating more canter work into them as well. That and making sure that Gus is always down and round. No exceptions. He doesn't seem to like that, but once we get him to his happy place, he is always much more comfortable. It's just getting him there that is the issue.

Tomorrow is farrier day again for Gus. It has only been 4 weeks since he was done last, but there are some fairly significant changes in his hinds that I believe need to be addressed - along with whatever the heck maybe up with that left fore. I took a few photos of the right hind - it, in particular, has started to flare REALLY bad - or least looks like it has to me.

It really looks like it's flaring a lot on the outside wall, but looking at the shot of Gus's sole (the last photo posted), you can see a really round hoof - all the way around. So, we'll see. Looks like we may need to stop squaring off the hind toes...

Just for comparison's sake, this was Gus's hoof (sole shot) from July 20th:

Anyways, on one final note - we're dealing with some horrible bugs out at Gus's barn. It's been a battle for the past few weeks now to get these massive bites healed. I'm thinking they are from horse flies, but gosh are they such bad welts. Thankfully Gus is pretty nonchalant about everything and they don't see to be bothering him at all. But, I'm definitely not at all happy to be dealing with them. Plus being that they are right were the girth goes, we have to be extra careful. Here's a couple photos that kinda show what Gus is dealing with:

There is at least 3 or 4 large, quarter-sized lumps on Gus's right side - this picture really doesn't do justice to what he's dealing with. So, for the time being, I"m still applying a combination of Vaseline and now Patch N' Go (a natural ointment/fly repellent) to see if we can get those healed up. We'll see what works.

Baby Steps of Success

2011-08-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well, today I decided to get a quick ride in before work. Glad I did. The weather was just AMAZING. Still is, too. There is NOTHING to complain about when it's 67 degrees, sunny and slightly breezy.

Since the weather was cooperating so well, I opted to work Gus outside. This of course involved digging out my jacket, one that hasn't been worn since probably late May. I also had to scrounge around to find Gus's Cavallo Simple Boots.

I decided to not lunge Gus this morning prior to riding... which ended up not being such a huge deal. We started off with the usual, but being that we were working in the outdoor standard dressage arena, we worked more on 4 loop serpentines rather then 3 loop. We also did the standard leg yield to SIs, both on the center line and the quarter line. And attempted (haha, if you want to even call it that) working on leg yields, with transitions, on the diagonal. Those didn't go so well - we ended up with a nice giraffe impression, instead of the lovely dressage "frame" that we all so desire. Oh well, we attempted. We ended up our arena work for the day with some canter circles, 20 meters of course. Boy is it hard to transition from a small dressage arena to a large - I have really concentrate on making those circles round, not lopsided.

After working for about 30 minutes in the arena, we went an just trotted and cantered a bit in the grassy jump field. I opted to not work a lot out there because (1) Gus was tired and (2) the ground was still slippery from the morning's dew.

Gus was surprisingly sound with the Cavallo boots on. Only at the very end of our ride were we getting some bad steps. Who knows the reason why... but he was much more comfortable working outside with the boots on. So boots outdoors it is. Easy enough to fix that issue, least for the time being. Tomorrow is lesson day again and on Thursday is the farrier. So we'll see what the farrier finds out on Thursday.

I decided to take some photos after our ride today. So enjoy! I know that Gus was really enjoying his err, treat. Sheesh.

Second Guessing

2011-08-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

The joys of having a horse who is nearly ALWAYS off.

So yesterday I went out to the barn after work to have a nice ride on Gus. We only worked in the indoor arena and boy did he start off stiff. It was difficult to tell if Gus was truly "off" on the left fore or just sore/stiff. We were able to work though a lot of the issues once I was mounted, but on the ground he just looked a bit uncomfortable (but not so bad that he couldn't stand a little bit of work).

Once in the saddle, we established the same ol', same ol'. So that means down, round, forward and serpentines! Whohoo! I think we are the kings (err, in my case queen) of serpentines. We did trot serpentines and then we worked on transitions on the centerline while in the serpentines. Then it was lateral work time. Mainly just leg yields (from quarter line then center line to the rail) and some SIs. If I was with the program, I would've thrown in some leg yields on the diagonal WITH transitions. Oh well, next time - right?

After some good trot work, we did some big 20m figure eights, working on the stretchy-chewy aspect of the training level tests. Down and forward. Gus did pretty well. Typically we always do these at the end of our rides, but I've come to learn that Gus is usually a bit better AFTER the stretchy-chewy work hence the reason why I should throw those into our schedule a little earlier on.

Then it was on to canter work. Pretty boring canter work yesterday. Just 20m cirlces at every major letter, really focusing on making it a truly circular 20m circle, not lopsided. I tend to make the first 20m of our circle (really only those at B or E) too big, for whatever reason. It's really only at the canter that I tend to take some liberty with the circle size, but I need to work on keeping it truly 20m - so that's what we did.

After all that, we went back to the trot and worked on down, round and forward again. Then stretchy-chewy figure eights. Then I called it a day. Gus was good and tired, as was I, and I figured we'd better end on a good note - especially with him not being 100% himself.

On the plus side, he's becoming more consistently round and holding it for more then just a brief second. Gus's muscling is really improving as well. I'd love to do the benefit show in a couple weeks, but with Gus being off on the footing outdoors, I don't really want to push my luck. It's just not worth it. Instead, I plan to be the official photog of our barn - so if I get any amazing shots, I'll be sure to post them.

However, Gus was still off when we walked outside yesterday to cool down. Just walking outside in the south arena (don't normally work in there as the arena is not at all level - it's just attached to the indoor) Gus was almost head-bobbing lame. Sound in the indoor though. Go figure. Since the mosquitoes were so bad I opted to just hurry up and get back inside the barn. I was otherwise just going to walk him around the property... perhaps I'll do that tomorrow when I go out to ride before work.

The other this is, Gus does not like the baucher bit. I decided to try him in that again - haven't used it in years. He'll listen but was much more resistant to contact with the baucher then he is with the KK Ultra loose ring. Then again, his regular bridle is a crank + flash (not cranked at all tight) and with the baucher, he was in a regular noseband.

Oh and I wore my new boots for the first time riding yesterday. You would've thought I'd been riding in them forever. They feel just amazing. And talk about close contact. I could feel everything. I absolutely LOVE the look of the Tredsteps too. The slim footbed actually flatters my narrow feet nicely - and there is hardly any excess movement, which meant no blisters. I just wish they were taller. So my next boots will most definitely be the Da Vinci's - Tredsteps more expensive tall boot (think twice the price and then some).

So, my goal for tomorrow is to Bute Gus prior to riding (I had been doing this for the last month or so, but recently haven't - primarily because I've forgotten), work in the indoor - lunge/w/t/c working on serpentines and transitions, then go ride outside. I'd like to work Gus a little bit in the jump field and then if he's feeling well enough, do some gallop sets on the cross country course. Of course that plan is subject to change... so, we'll see how Gus feels tomorrow (granted I actually get myself outta bed early enough to ride before work).

Tredstep Boots!

2011-08-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

Not so much G2 related, however I do need to have protective footwear when running around with the boys. So, my mom and husband went in together for my birthday and got me these awesome boots. They were exactly what I wanted (after having hinted to both of them that that was what I wanted for my birthday).

My only qualm with them is they are *pinches fingers together* this much too short. But they are lovely, nonetheless. Here's some pictures of the gorgeous new boots.

And I know they are field boots and not dress boots, but honestly I don't like the look of dress boots. So I got me some field boots. And they are amazing. The leather is just as supple as can be and they are breaking in nicely. I've only worn them for three hours thus far, but they are already breaking in around the ankles. So, they may be good to go sooner then expected.

They are Tredstep Donatellos from Smartpak Equine. Did I mention they are fabulous? Cause if I didn't, they are.

Off? Or just sorta-off?

2011-08-03T16:57:00.000-07:00

That begs the question. I had a lesson on Gus again today and it should have been just a normal day for us. However, being that the humidity had finally let up and the bugs weren't bad, I decided to lesson outside in the outdoor arena, rather then in the comforts of the indoor. Big mistake.

I had forgotten a lunge whip, so the first 10 minutes of attempting to lunge Gus were just wasted. My trainer went and got a lunge whip and then he finally went to work. Surprisingly, Gus was okay to the right - both without side reins and with. However going to the left, he was noticeably off. I thought it was the left fore, trainer thought left stifle, but the more we got him moving the more noticeable it was. Definitely the left fore.

So, being that Gus is normally okay in the indoor, we opted to go back into the indoor to see if he'd be sounder in there. Of course he was. Go figure.

However, on our walk back inside, we noticed that Gus was moving oddly on the left fore. He'd land outside hoof and then roll his hoof inwards. Very odd. So, I'll be in contact with his farrier to see if we can get some hoof testers on that when he's out again next Thursday (the 11th). If he sees nothing wrong ... then I guess I'll go from there. I do believe his x-rays from January showed either some rotation or odd at least odd angles in one of the hoof bones, so perhaps that is catching up with him.

Anyways, back to our lesson. By the time I actually got on, we only had about 20 minutes of my lesson left. So we worked only on walk/trot serpentines (changing on the center line) and shoulder-in/shoulder-fore. Gus was, surprisingly, very good with the SIs. Especially on the ones to the left.

So, homework is to keep working on the serpentines, SIs and I should probably start doing more haunches-in work again as well. The biggest thing is to start doing more work in the other arenas to see if it's just outside where Gus has issues or if we're dealing with something bigger. Although, it's obvious that he's landing wrong in that left fore, I do know that he's usually comfortable in the grassy outdoor arenas and fields... but has been (previously) off while in the outdoor sand/dirt arena. Not sure if that makes sense, but nothing with Gus makes sense.

Last Wednesday, after my lesson, I decided to roach off Gus's mane. Not sure if I mentioned that previously or not, but well it's been something that I've done on and off over the years. Gus can sport a mean roached look and it's just easier to deal with then a wispy, thin mane. Yuck.

So, here's a few photos I took from today showing the roached look, a week out. I like the look when it's about a month or two out and nicely shaped. Gus decided to keep bobbing his head while I was clipping him, so not only did he end up with a roached mane, I also clipped down his crest. Oops. Good thing he goes hair like nothing else.

So, hopefully it's nothing major, whatever is wrong with Gus, this time. He is scheduled to see the chiropractor at the end of the month... so if something is outta whack, she should be able to put him back together again. Hopefully.

Also, unrelated to Gus's lameness issues, I did end up upping his TC Senior again. He's now up to 1.5lbs twice a day, so 3lbs now - up from 2.5lbs daily. Weight wise, he's looking pretty dang good, but with the workload and the fact that I want to get some muscle on him, I figure we'll up his grain for a while and see where that takes us.

Thursday, Thursday

2011-07-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I had another amazing ride on Gus again today. It was literally, verbatim, a copy from yesterday's lesson. The only difference really was that Gus was not wanting to pick up the right lead canter on the lunge today. We haven't had any issues with that in weeks... so the plan is to just monitor that and if things get worse, have Dr. N back out to either reinject (I hope not) or do a Legend injection (much more doable).

We otherwise had a nice ride. Gus was obedient and willing, we had some very nice moments. I'm hoping we can keep Gus moving soundly and we can keep moving forward in our training.

Today I also went out to see Gringo. Mainly I went out because my future SIL wanted to visit and we figured we could coordinate our times so we'd both be out at the same time. Anyways, I put Gringo back on the lunge line and he was a good boy again. First time I've worked with him in a few weeks. Mainly the same ol', same ol' - WHOA/walk/trot, emphasis on the whoa.

When I added the side reins back in, I moved them back two holes - so back to where they were originally. I figured I wouldn't press my luck with having them more restricted. The only issues we had were when Gringo thought the world was ending (aka geese honking/T bellering/Buster acting dumb). Ironically enough, just when all that commotion started was when I asked Gringo for the canter. We did have a nice canter on the right, the left was a bit harried - but I did have one nice attempt. We ended the session on a good note...

Then, Gringo got a bath. First bath (sans shampoo) in years. And he was such a good boy. Just one photo of a clean horse, the rest are the results of being turned back out.

[My favorite... both ears are pricked forward as well]

I'm hoping to get more photos in days and weeks to come. I did end up taking a video of Gus's ride from today, but even edited down (removing all the dead space) it is still just over a half hour long. And nothing is working right for me right now. For whatever reason I can't get YouTube or Picasa to work properly... and it's not like I don't have enough storage space, as I recently purchased an additional 20GB of space from Google, specifically for backup storage but now I can't get it to work. Supposedly it has something to do with GPS and all that jazz, but I'm not entirely sure how to turn off the GPS on my cell, cause the way I see it right now, it's turned off already. Oh well.

Nasty bugs!

2011-07-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten to mention in my previous post (the mold one, haha) about a lovely sore that Gus developed on his left side aka "girth line". The bugs have become horrendous out at the barn - partially due to all the rain AND the heat, and well since I wasn't able to make it out for days on end, his poor "arm pits" just became inundated with bug bites. Thankfully I only ended up dealing with one major bit and another smaller one... poor Gus.

Anyways, I took a photo. It's hard to make out, so I ended up circling the area that is all swollen. The original size of the sore/swelling was about a small baseball in size - probably closer to golf ball sized. As of today, it's just a small scab with minimal swelling. Scab is about an inch in length and half that in width.

With some good management aka lots of vaseline/Swat/anti-bug goop, Gus should heal up just fine. Gringo is dealing with the same thing (bugs) but they seem to prefer his sheath to anything else. Poor Gringo.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, but I was able to talk to J, the farrier today. After talking to him, he said he'd really prefer to NOT shoe Gus at this time - partially because he doesn't think his hooves can hold a shoe for any length of time. That works for me, I had just mentioned the whole shoe idea because of how chewed up his hooves were last time, after just a couple weeks.

So, for the time being, I've started up the Durasole again. So every ride/anti-ride/whenever Gus is in the barn, I"ll be applying that to his soles - all four. And I did end up reordering Gus's SmartHoof pellets. So, we'll do another couple months of that and see how things sit then.

And, the boots will be coming back out. Whenever Gus is working undersaddle outside, I'll start using the Cavallos or the Boa boots again. I just don't want to deal with any foot tenderness - which is what I think we were seeing at the beginning of my lesson this morning. Hopefully we're getting to the bottom of all these hoof issues... very frustrating.

Lesson = Very Successful

2011-07-27T13:42:00.001-07:00

Today was lesson day again. First lesson, and real ride, since my last lesson two weeks ago. Gus was amazing.

We started off as usual on the lunge line with side reins. The only real issues I noticed was he was slightly off to the left (mainly on the left fore it seemed) ... and short with the right hind, although that is not unusual.

Once done with the warm-up, we proceeded to riding work. Same ol' once again. Serpentines. But you know what? They work.

After doing a few repetitions both directions, we worked on some leg yield work. Mainly, we did leg yields across the diagonal. Once we had those well established, we did leg yields across the diagonal again, but once we reached the opposite quarter line, I asked for the canter and kept the canter until just before the next short side. Eventually, that progressed to doing transitions on the leg yield, on the diagonal - just at the walk and trot.

That was the jist of my lesson today. Nothing too overly exiting, but Gus was just fabulous, all things considered. Definitely need to keep working on the down, round and forward. But I really also need to incorporate more lateral work, whether that be leg yields, or haunches-in... He just needs more hind end work.

Mold, Hooves and Celery, OH MY!

2011-07-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

So three topics of discussion... none really at all related other then the fact that all revolved around Gus.

Firstly, mold. OMG. When I got to the barn on Wednesday (no lesson due to the heat), I couldn't believe how much mold my tack had accumulated in mere days. It was like I was back living in N. Georgia... in the summer. It was ridiculous.

Here's a couple pictures of Gus's bridle. It was disgusting...

Needless to say, ALL of Gus's tack needed to come home and get cleaned. So, instead of resting Wednesday evening, I spent two hours cleaning all my tack with a mixture of vinegar & water followed by a light coating of glycerin saddle soap. Everything is now sparkling clean and healthy-looking again.

Hooves. Well, on Thursday, July 14th Gus got his hooves retrimmed again. He was just four weeks post trim and was really needing to be retrimmed again. Frustrating to have to go four weeks instead of the usual 5-6 weeks, but if that's what he needs because of our crappy weather, then so be it.

Here's a bunch of photos from Gus's trim, one week out (taken on July 20th). As usual, then are show from left fore, to left hind, right hind to right fore.

And, for the heck of it, here's a photo of Gus enjoying his celery snack. I did find out via CoTH (my go-to source for information or rather opinions) that Gus probably can have watermelon, just in moderation. So, I'll be sure to get some watermelon for him next go-round.

Celery is his new favorite thing, I think. I've never seen Gus devour something so fast as he did the celery.

Yesterday, I had a really nice ride on Gus again. First ride in like two weeks. And first ride in YEARS sans any real "tack". I didn't even have Gus's halter on. Haha. Actually, he had a halter and two lead ropes as "reins" but the halter wasn't his. I had forgotten I had left all of my cleaned tack at my parents' house... so by the time I got to the barn it was a little too late to head the other direction into town. So, my BO was gracious enough to allow me to borrow a halter and I was able to supply the lead ropes.

All we managed to work on yesterday was a few walk/trot laps over the cavalletti that were set up in the north arena and then we went on a "road" and "field" ride with another lady, L and her horse, T. All in all, it was a nice ride but we didn't get anything accomplished. Tomorrow is lesson time again, so I'm hoping we have a good lesson. I won't keep my fingers crossed as neither Gus nor I have worked at all in the last couple weeks. Slackers I guess.

The heat... it's KILLING me.

2011-07-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, not literally. But it's been down right ridiculous here in MN lately. The last nice days we had here in central MN were over a week ago. I was the lucky individual at work who had Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday off, because I was stuck working the weekend shift. Well, you can bet that I enjoyed those two days outside. Since then, we've had nearly record highs - 80s and 90s with high dew points and high humidity. Supposedly we were hotter then the Amazon yesterday, at 8:30 in the morning!

So, today I am supposed to have a lesson - long standing lessons, Wednesdays @ 6p. However, due the extreme heat - it's cancelled. Bummer but totally understandable, and with temps like we've been having, there's no way I'd actually want to ride in this weather.

Instead, I plan on going out to the barn to bring Gus a nice, cool treat. Some celery. I wanted to give him some watermelon, but it's high in sugar and with his IR issues I don't really want to push him over the edge. So, celery it is. Plus, I need to refill his grain baggies (all his meals are pre-baggied) and I want to see how his hooves look post trim. He was trimmed on 7/14, so I'm hoping everything looks good. I should have some new photos to post within the next day or two, hopefully.

Published... It's a possibility!

2011-07-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

So, last weekend I went with a friend from the barn to a local schooling show. I went as her unofficial photographer/groom/whatever-she-needed. It was a great schooling opportunity for G, my friend's horse and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

Anyways, in the process of talking to the show organizer, they inquired about me being the unofficial show photographer for the day. I figured as long as I was there, I could certainly take photos - least until my ride left.

Here's a few shots I took from the day:

The shots of the bay on top are G, followed by an adorable little girl and her grey pony (her older brother also rode the pony in the ground pole class), then the last few are of E.L. That pretty pinto mare (I forget her breeding) in a phenomenal jumper and fairly photogenic in her own right. I love the last photo I took of her.

I was going to post a link to the photos, but then blogger went all funky on me. I'll try to get that figured out. Oh well.

The exciting part is that some of my work may get published in the local (local to the schooling show - so just south of the TC) newspaper. I'm super excited. Hubby of course says something to the effect that now I can finally use my journalism degree. Haha. Anyways, I'm hoping that I make it into the paper. That would be the highlite of my day.

Success!

2011-07-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's lesson was amazing. Gus was such a good boy. For the first time in ages, we actually got the right lead canter EVERY.SINGLE.TIME I asked. And there was no rushing into the canter or anything along those lines either. Just a nice, balanced trot to canter transaction. Amazing.

So, the lesson consisted of the same ol', same ol' but fortunately for Gus, it works. So we did the 3 and 4 loop serpentines at the trot, throwing in a 8-10m circle at A/C and again at E/B - depending on what direction we were going.

Then we proceeded to work on the canter. All we did for canter work yesterday was 2 20m circles at each "major" letter, so A/B/C/E. Gus had to maintain a nice, slow, relaxed and ROUND canter. And for the most part, he did.

We ended the lesson with working on haunches in, but more specifically head-to-the-wall, butt-to-the-wall leg yields. Basically, we worked on the baby steps to get the haunches in. Of course we had issues getting the right leg to do what it needed to do, but we did end on a good note. These "haunches in" were really hard for Gus though, so I think I will plan on incorporating them into our workouts in the future... because they really will strengthen this hindend more.

Our game plan for the next few weeks will be working on the serpentines, "haunches in" - progressing towards a more true haunches in, and long canters/hand gallops. I think that kind of conditioning work will help Gus continue to develope his topline.

I'm so proud of my ol' man!

Gringo

2011-07-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much with Gringo in the last week, mainly because of the weather (really HOT) and partly because I've been busy. So the last time he was worked was over the 4th of July weekend. I definitely need to get more motivated and start working with Gringo on a more regular basis, then I might actually get somewhere with him. Then again, I'm in no hurry either.

Today, the farrier was out to trim Gringo again. Gringo was at 7 weeks out. I'm thinking I need to talk to L next time he's out about getting Gringo's toes in check. While he's perfectly sound like he is, he's also very long in the toe... which can lead to other issues, like I've learned with Gus.

Here's Gringo's hoof photos from today's trim, viewed from left front, to left rear, right rear to right front:

I also took some new body photos. Mind you, the barn floor is all dirt and VERY uneven. So, while Gringo looks like he's built majorly downhill, he's really only built slightly downhill.

Weight-wise, I would prefer that Gringo loose a few more pounds. But honestly, I'm not entirely sure to go about doing that. Normal circumstances mean cutting grain/hay, upping exercise or putting on a grazing muzzle. Unfortunately, none of those are really good options. I think I'll try upping the exercise as much as I can, but it's hard to do anything with a horse who's not started undersaddle. At least he's outside 24/7 so he can walking around as much as he'd like.

Gus And His Hoof Troubles

2011-07-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

So, unfortunately Gus is starting to have a few issues with his hooves again. Of course that is nothing new. Here's what I was looking at last Wednesday...

By yesterday, the left front was even more broken up. Sad thing is, this is only a 4 week trim. It's unfortunate, but we had such a wet spring and that was followed by HOT, dry weather. Everybody and everything seems to be breaking up. So, I bumped Gus up from a 6 week schedule to a 4 week schedule, least for the next two cycles.

Yesterday, Gus and I had a lovely ride outside. Due to his hooves, I opted to not ride in the outdoor arenas as they are like riding on concrete right now. The indoor would've worked just fine, but it was beautiful outside. So, we worked in the fields. We started off with working on down and round at the walk and trot. When I asked for the canter, we got both leads - correctly - the first go around. I figured we'd try our hand at the hand gallop again... and what a lovely hand gallop we had. Of course is was on the forehand and no where near proper, but since when has Gus had a proper hand gallop?

Tonight is another lesson night, so I'm hoping we can work more on getting him round and forward again. Last week's lesson was primarily working on round and forward. We did the 3 and 4 loop serpentines again at the trot, followed by 20m canter circle figure-8s. We also worked on leg yields, from the quarter line to the rail. Gus was better doing the leg yield off the right leg when I was posting. The left leg yield was fine regardless.

He's still getting bute prior to every ride, as long as I remember. The bute seems to take the edge off and make him a little bit more comfortable. The farrier wanted him bute'd before he works on him in the future, so hopefully Gus will be good for J tomorrow when he gets retrimmed.

Oh, and I asked the BM about how Gus is eating his new grain (Triple Crown Senior). She said he's eating it all up, every meal, including his supps. However, he's not eating his Pergolide unless they break and crumble up the tablets. So... he's obviously been missing a few dosages as she's seen as many as three tablets in and around his feed area. She and the BO break up the tablets, but none of the other workers do. So I'm thinking about crumbling them myself when I make up his grain every week. And speaking of his grain, he's currently on about 1.5lbs twice a day. He's looking great at this current amount, so we'll see how well he holds his weight.

4th of July

2011-07-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

I had to take advantage of a day off AND nice weather, so I took the time to work with both boys.

I started off at my in-laws place to work with Gringo. Same ol', same ol' with him. I tacked Gringo up and we went to work in the pasture. We started off just w/t without the side reins. Gringo remembered what we worked on last time, so the whoa was easier to establish this time around. After going around both directions for a couple minutes, I added the side reins. I placed them on the lowest ring on each side and tightened both reins by two holes. I think I may have done too many things at once with that move. While Gringo did move out once the side reins were added, he did so a bit unwillingly. Our only real issue was going to the left, he shook his head (due to the nasty flies everywhere) and freaked a bit when he realised his head was attached to the side reins. After going backwards a couple steps, he stopped (found out the whoa does work) and waited until I came up. So, while we had a moment, it was a learning experience and nothing bad came out of it.

I did attempt to ask for the canter this time around. After the episode I had a few weeks prior, I was a bit leary. We did get a nice canter to the right but I was never able to establish a canter left. So, we left that for another time. I'd rather Gringo have a nice, calm workout then one where he ends up frustrated and freaking out.

Note for next time, bring out a lunge whip. I haven't used one since I was working with Gringo at the vet's place (where I boarded him for a while). So, that'll need to be introduced slowly, but I need a bit more control of those hindquarters and I think I'll be able to get that with the lunge whip.

Gus and I had a really nice ride today. Nothing too amazing, but we did w/t/c/hand gallop outside. I had to take advantage of the weather and decent footing...

So, we started off without lunging today. First time I've just hopped up on him in ages. He started off stiff but worked out of it. We began the ride in the stadium field and trotted over a few of the downed jumps/cavalletti. After that, we proceeded to walk and trot down the field service road. This road runs on the north side of the property and is minimally maintained. So there are pot holes and rocks like you wouldn't believe.

We then ended up on the cross-country course. After walking up and down the new bank jump, we did some canter work. Gus was hesitant to pick up the right lead in the field, but I was able to get the correct lead after making a small circle prior to asking for the canter.

At the end of the ride, we had some nice long canters. I was trying to get a hand gallop on the left lead but Gus was more interested in just cantering along. When we turned back for the barn, I was able to get a very nice, forward right lead canter and then a hand gallop on the right lead. Gus was actually having a little too much fun then.

Our cool out consisted of walking the field service road again and the inner perimeter of the cross-country course.

Both boys got sponged/hosed off after their workouts. Gus got the added benefit of a bath, complete with shampoo and conditioner.

I took some new photos of Gus and his hooves again today, as I noticed that the hoof walls on the fronts were breaking up again. This trim is only 3 weeks old and he's already chipping the hoof walls up. I'm hoping to not have to put shoes on Gus this summer, but if he needs them then they'll be added.

In the last photo above, you can just barely see what's left of the nasty hoof crack that originated back in October 2010. I think with just another couple months, it should hopefully be fully grown out. I'm still debating about keeping Gus on a hoof supplement. I'm sure it doesn't hurt him at all to be on it but does he need it?

These next photos are some new body condition photos. Kinda hard to take photos in the barn and with my cell phone, but I think they do justice.

That last photo shows Gus's topline or rather, lack thereof. It's a work in progress, but I'm hoping that if I can keep him sound we'll have a nice, strong topline back before we know it. Least one can hope.

Re-training Gringo

2011-07-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

So, it was decided by my MIL that I should start to work with Gringo and get him going under saddle, finally. Seeing as the vet okay'd the work since the x-rays showed no serious changes, I've slowly started working with him again to see what he remembers.

Well, the first attempt about a month ago was a disaster. Gringo was really good w/t on the lunge but the moment I asked for a canter, he kinda lost it. I was able to get him back and I thought all was well, until we switched directions. Cantering on the right lead he again lost it and thought "Yipee". Out pops the left shoulder and there he goes... literally.

After watching him run around, like the lunatic he is, I finally was able to catch him again. I didn't attempt to ask for the canter again, but I did end the session on a good note by having a nice w/t and WHOA on the lunge line. Called it quits for the day after that.

So this past Wednesday, I decided to work with Gringo again. Better try to make it more consistent, otherwise I won't be getting anywhere. I started off the same way as before, but unlike the first time, this time Gringo was fully tacked. Bridle, surcingle and side reins. We worked on the same things. Walk/Trot/WHOA. The WHOA being especially important. The biggest thing I've learned with Gringo is that he loves positive attention, so as soon as he does something that I like, I praise him. Same goes for if he doesn't something wrong.

I didn't push for the canter, so I only got it a couple times each direction. But he did listen a lot better this time and I think being fully tacked up helped tremendously. Eventually, I'll be adding a saddle up there, but I've got time. I'm in no hurry to get him going under saddle. If it happens, it happens. I won't be upset if it doesn't. And I WON'T be the first person on his back.

So here's to small, baby steps in the progress of Gringo's training. He is listening to me and is understanding what WHOA means. Hopefully one day, all I'll need to say is "whoa" and he stops on a dime. That's my goal for him.

Chiropractors, the Equine kind.

2011-07-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Gus saw Dr. K again, his equine Chiropractor. She's amazing and has loads of patience. It also helps that she's also a dressage rider, so she understands the needs of a dressage horse more then someone who isn't familiar with that discipline.

Gus was out in a lot of the same places as before, but Dr. K said she was able to get better adjustments this time. I'm hoping that Gus shows marked improvement like he did back at the end of May when he saw Dr. K for the first time.

This time, she found him out in the low back/SI region again. He was locked tight in the left side and that in turn caused all the vertebrae in the lower back on the right side to tilt. This could very well be part of the reason why he is reluctant to pick up the right lead canter, specifically on the lunge/at liberty. Other points of soreness included the right hip/pelvis area - just above the right stifle, the left side of the base of his neck - near/on the withers, and the left side of his skull/right side of poll - if that makes any sense.

Anyways, I did ask about the excessive yawning. She mentioned that it could be due to him being out in the poll/TMJ/etc or it could be also due to something else, I forget the name. But regardless, she related it to the same reason why Apolo Ohno yawns before any of his races... to get more oxygen back into his body/muscles/etc. So, who knows why Gus decided to take up yawning... the world may never know.

On this past Wednesday, Gus and I had a really nice lesson. We started Gus off, as usual, on the lunge. Nothing new there, just tried a couple different settings with the side reins as Gus decided to be counter-bent, even with the inside reins shorter then the outside. B, my trainer/BO, noticed that Gus seemed more short-strided on the left then on the right, which is the opposite that he normally is.

Undersaddle, Gus ended up being short-strided to the right, which is typical for him. Going to the left, everything was normal. All we did undersaddle on Wednesday was work being round, forward off my leg and "joggy" trot. We did 3 and 4 loop trot serpentines along with canter figure-8s. With the figure-8s, we added an extra circle at X, typically 10-12m in size - still at the canter. We opted to not push Gus with a smaller canter circle to the right, so we stuck with just the 20m circle that direction.

Needless to say, it ended up being a good training session. Gus had some nice moments and only towards the end of the lesson did he start showing some bad steps behind. I definitely think the chiro + squared off hind toes makes a world of difference for him.

Updates... LONG Overdue

2011-06-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

It has been FOREVER since I've updated this blog, my apologies. Life has been chaotic and hectic at most and crazy busy in the least. Needless to say, this hasn't been one of my priorities, but I do plan on changing that... or at least updating much more frequently.

Now on to the boys.

I'll start with Gringo.

Gringo is doing just a good as he's ever been. Soundness wise he's probably at 99%, 95% of the time. That other 5% of the time he's just slightly off on the left front due to his mainly healed, fractured coffin bone. I had the vet out back in April to take new x-rays of Gringo's left front hoof. Surprisingly, not much has changed but some arthritic changes have started to appear. So it looks as if he's as healed as he's going to get and we just need to basically move on and see how he goes. Vet has cleared him to begin undersaddle work, yet again. But, yet again, I'm very leary to start working with him.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of his March 2008 and April 2011 x-rays. Still EXTREMELY obvious where the fracture site is, but thankfully there are no major red flags with the new x-rays.

Weight-wise, I think I've finally got Gringo down to a weight that is acceptable. He was PUDGY this winter, which is somewhat okay given the fact that he is pasture-boarded in Minnesota in the winter, but I think this was totally unacceptable. He was down right FAT.

These photos were taken in February.

And here's a few that were taken just a few months later, earlier this month in June.

He's still a bit heavy, but better now then he was then. He's only getting 1/3c of alfalfa pellets daily along with his hay. And a lush pasture he shares with just one other horse, Jade. However, I think the combination of hay AND 24/7 pasture is making him still too pudgy. You can feel his ribs though and the vet did like his weight when she saw him in April... so I guess that's saying something positive. I think I'm just used to seeing horses with muscle and Gringo sadly lacks in that department, as does Gus.

Here's a rundown on Gringo's feed stuffs:
* 1/3c of alfalfa pellets
* hay... lots of it (I really should weigh it sometime)
* pasture, again LOTS of it
* 1oz Mega-Cell
* Mag-Ox 56% - 8g
* MSM - 10g

And here's a picture of Jade, Gringo's girlfriend. She's a pretty, young thang ... haha. Actually, she is quite young and very green. Surprisingly still, she's 100% Appaloosa.

Alrightly, now on to Gus. So, what's new with Gus? or what all has happened since October 2010? Gosh, where to start.

October 2010
Well, after my last blog post, we did end up injection Gus's stifles again. Both this time. However, because of his Insulin Resistance and Cushings, we opted to not use any steroids at all, just plain old Legend. Well, in doing so, there was nothing to control the inflammation that is associated with joint injections, so Gus was extremely uncomfortable after his injections and for weeks later.

This was also the start of the beginning of the end of Gus's hooves as we know it. I'd let the pictures speak for themselves, except I must have lost some in the process. Anyways, what was minimal damage in October ended up major damage in December.

November 2010
Nothing notable happened... least nothing that I can recall.

December 2010
All h*ll broke lose this month. I think pictures explain things well enough.

Taken right after being reset in mid-December:

So, as you can tell, Gus had two nice sized cracks, one of each front hoof. The left hoof crack was on the inside near the heel, the crack on the right front was located on the outside of the hoof, also near the heel. To this day we have no idea what caused the cracks.

January
After discussing things with the vet back in December, we opted to remove Gus from all work, least til we could get his hooves figured out. So, we ended up pulling Gus's shoes on 1/13 and the vet took some new rads. Had a new farrier out to pull the shoes. He ended up doing just that but no trimming of the hooves. We also ended up putting Gus in come Cavallo hoof boots (a pair was generously given to Gus from a CoTHer) with 2 degree wedge pads. He ended up in that boot combo for about 6 weeks.

Here are the photos and rads:

Right Front

Left Front

February

Again, no big changes from January to the beginning of February. Gus still had not had his hooves trimmed since December, if I'm not mistaken. Still off work and spending 24/7 in Cavallo Simple Boots.

Here's the sequence of photos from the month of February.

February 13th:

The brusing and cracking that you see around the heels/back of coronet band are due to the Cavallo boots. The day I took these, I pulled his boots. It was so icy out that Gus was ending up way sorer then he should have been.

February 19th:

What you see above is all from damage from walking on an icy pasture. There was really nothing to do about it and it was mostly due to not being trimmed since December. This was partially my fault but also due to the farrier. He did not want to trim Gus until more hoof grew out. We more hoof grew, that's for sure, and we ended up with some severe breakage.

March
Again, the photos speak for themselves.

March 2nd:

Basically, more of the same photos, except this shows what happens when he was allowed to continue to walk on long hooves. I was still waiting to get the farrier out when I took these. Believe it or not, Gus was still fairly sound, though still out of work.

March 15th:

So, after talking to the farrier and verbally agreeing to trim him in earlier March, I had to call the day AFTER he was out wondering why the heck Gus was not trimmed as agreed to. Needless to say, the farrier made it out on a Saturday to trim Gus and only Gus. I made sure to tip him for the trip, even though it wasn't my fault that Gus wasn't done when he was out a few days prior.

It was around that same time that a very generous CoTHer sent Gus a pair of Soft Rides. So for the next few weeks, Gus sported these boots, which I LOVED. I highly recommend Soft Rides. They are fabulous.

It was also in March that we got the go ahead to start lightly working Gus again.

April
April started off and continued just like any other month. No major hoof issues with Gus, but as the month progressed, Gus was starting to have stifle issues again. So a call was made to our favorite vet and an appointment was set for the beginning of May.

The farrier also came out in early April to touch up the fronts and actually trim the hinds. Here's the photos from that visit on the 6th.

As you can tell, the hoof cracks slowly but surely were growing out. And other then being off in the back due to his stifles, Gus seemed to be getting over whatever was ailing him in the front.

May
At the beginning of May, the vet was out to reinject Gus's stifles. We opted to do the Legend again, but added a little bit of steroid to the mix to help with the inflammation. Back in October when he was done no steroids were added, because of the risk of laminitis. Well in not doing so, we ended up with more inflammation issues then we had to begin with.

The injections were a success and Gus started to improve. However, we were still dealing with some sticky issues on the right hind. We opted to start Gus on a round of Adequan to see if that would help at all, so a week after the stifle injections, Gus started the 7 series injections. Dr. N also recommended having the chiropractor out to see if she could find any sore spots. Oh and boy did she ever.

Dr. K was out at the end of May and Gus was out just about everywhere. Actually mainly just his back, SI and withers, if I'm not mistaken. I did mention to her about Gus's increased yawning... I have noticed since the beginning on May (when we started to increase his work load) that after working out, he would yawn excessively after the bridle was removed. I don't think we really addressed that issue, so in June I'm hoping we can find why that is going on.

Below are the hoof shots from May:

June
Needless to say, from the end of May until now (the end of June) nothing major has happened with Gus. He's still continuing to improve although was are still dealing with issues on the right hind. He will willingly enough pick up the right lead canter under saddle, but it's nearly impossible to get it while on the lunge.

Speaking of the lunge line, part of Gus's workout includes lunging. We typically spend anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes lunging Gus before riding. He goes in Vienna balancing reins (a type of sliding side rein) and we try really hard to NOT do circles. Circles are bad for stifles.

We are also working over cavalletti and ground poles. Gus can successfully navigate 3-4 trot poles in a row and can also canter two poles, spaced 1/4 of a 20m circle apart, if that makes any sense. I plan on incorporating more cavalletti and poles in Gus's future work, as they really work well in strengthening the stifle.

Just a couple weeks back, Gus was trimmed yet again by the farrier. He seems to be doing okay with his hooves now, and slowly but surely those cracks are growing out. The one on the left front is gone or very nearly gone, if I'm not mistaken. The right front crack is still there, but it too is nearly gone.

Here are the photos:

We also opted to drastically change Gus's hind hooves. He now is sporting a squared off toe. This actually really seemed to help him break over faster in the back. He's now w/t/c without tripping, or at least not tripping nearly as frequently.

Here's the photos of his hind hooves:

So, that's where we stand right now. Here's some basic body shots I took of Gus just the other day. Weight-wise, I think he's looking pretty good. Definitely needs more muscle but the only way to get that back is with proper work and time. Lots of time.

Gus is due to see Dr. K again on Thursday. I'm hoping we can get the last bit of his TMJ or whatever is causing all the yawning taken care of. I'm also hoping we can get the rest of the SI/back issues resolved. He improved about 85% with the chiropractor back at the end of May, but I want to try to get that last 15%. The only issues noted are the sticky right stifle which is only noticable when attempting the right lead canter and general stiffness, which is mainly resolved with lunge work prior to undersaddle work.

Goals for Gus for the summer are very minimal. I just want him to stay sound and comfortable, both front and back.

Final Diagnosis
We sorta put a diagnosis to what Gus was suffering from all last year. Dr. N says it was subclinical laminitis. Basically we didn't see the root of all his issues, so while we were treating the symptoms we weren't treating the cause. Gus is now, and has been since ~ April, on Pergolide. It's a prescription medication to treat Cushings. Gus started off on 0.5mg daily and just recently (in the last 3 weeks or so) has been on an increased dosage of 1mg daily. The reason for the increase was we didn't think the 0.5mg dose was making any improvements. He is still carrying his winter coat, or what's left of it, on his barrel. The rest of him has been shedded out since about mid-June. He is currently about 3 weeks behind his normal schedule for shedding out. I'm not sure if that is due to the odd spring we had (or lack there of) or due to being on the Pergolide.

While Gus continues to improve with his hoof issues, I don't think he'll ever be totally out of the clear. It'll be something I need to continually watch for the rest of his life. His diet is closely monitored as well, and that in addition to the farrier and prescription makes Gus truly a "hard keeper" now.

His current diet includes:
* 2lb Triple Crown Senior (divided into two meals)
* hay (couldn't tell you what or how much though, I really should retest it)
* MSM - 10g
* MagOx 56% - 8g
* SmartHoof
* Pergolide - 1mg

We keep changing his grain as Gus has decided that grain is the enemy. So, since oh November/December, Gus has gone from Progressive Nutrition ProAdvantage Grass (had to cancel due to feed store closing) and alfalfa pellets, to Purina Enrich 32% (a comparable "grain" similar to PN), to Purina WellSolve L/S to the Triple Crown Senior. Hopefully he'll maintain his appetite with the TC Senior.

Stifle Issues, again.

2010-10-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Really? So why would that be new news? Well, Gus has been fairly sound in the hind end (aka stifles) since he was moved to my MIL's back in 2009. The last time he had his stifles injected was in January of 2009. We haven't experienced any problems since then. Well, on Wednesday things changed.

I brought him in as usual for my lesson and noticed when I asked him to move his butt over, he would literally fall over. Definitely not normal. He was also resting the right hind. When I put him in the groom stall to get him prepped for the lesson, he had a very hard time turning around. He also would not lift the left hind for me to pick out his hooves... because then he'd have to bear full weight on that right hind.

I took him into the arena to lunge him and he was definitely off on that right hind. So off to call the vet. Dr. N will be out on Monday to for sure do a quick lameness eval and then do (mostlikely) joint injections to be the right and left stifles.

I feel bad for Gus but I'm also really mad. It seems like this is how life works. Hopefully the injections do their magic and Gus is miraculously back to normal within the week... but for some reason, I'm not holding my breath for that...

Long Overdue Update

2010-10-08T08:46:00.001-07:00

It's been ages since I've done an update on the boys. I do have plenty of pictures to post too, go figure, right? Anyways, the photos will have to come later. First things first though.

Gringo. He's been doing fairly well all summer long. Too well, in fact. The little porker looks more like a cow then the Andalusian/Appaloosa that he is. He weights nearly as much as Gus, according to the weight tape at least.

Soundness-wise, well he's the same 'ol. Still off and on sound. More off then anything else though as of late. MIL doesn't seem to notice it at all, but I've known Gringo for a bit longer and although it is sometimes very minute, the lameness is still there. We'll see what the spring holds for him. She (MIL) would like me to start him under saddle again. I would like to see Gringo have some sort of job, as he's just wasting away in the pasture. But I think he enjoys his life for the most part. After all, he's nearly 8 and this is all he's ever known.

Food-wise, Gringo is now on more of a diet then he's ever been on. Short of slapping on a grazing muzzle (which I'd do if it wasn't for the fact that he'd literally live in it day in and day out, without it coming off) he's on basically just pasture and a small scoop (about 1/5 of a lb) of alfalfa pellets daily along with his supps. The supps are MSM (10g), MagOx 56% (10g), and Mega-Cell. The alf' pellets are only there so there is something to mix his supps with. He's currently on no hay, whatsoever. Although I do think the MIL feels bad for him and gives him some hay every now and then.

He's otherwise as happy as he can be. Just enjoying life.

Gus. We've definitely had our ups and downs. After doing the trial with boots and wedge pads (which we were successful with), Gus had shoes put back on with wedge pads and Forshner's packing added underneath. He was going well for a while, when just before our show in August he decided to throw a shoe. Lovely, right? J was out and put it back on just in time for the show. Despite the fact that Gus desperately needed his Legend injection, he did great at the show, bring in two ribbons, a first and a second. Very proud of my boy.

So, after the show, Gus got the Legend injection and that gave him a second wind. He really started moving better after that. Fast forward until the a few days ago.

We we warming up in the outdoor, prepping for this weekend's show when all of a sudden Gus took a bad step. A really bad step. Head bobbing lame immediately. Got B (the BO/Trainer) over to take a look and agreed with me that it was right fore. Definitely felt like hoof. We thought he may have gotten something (rock, sand?) up underneath the pad, but had no way of really knowing.

So I call out J, again. She really is fabulous. She comes out two days later (incident happened Sunday, I called her Monday after finding out he was still off, she was out Wednesday morning) and pulls both shoes, resets them and applies Equipak. I had a lesson on Wednesday evening and surprisingly, Gus was fairly sound. I am VERY HAPPY about this.

Still unsure what exactly caused the issues. We are sorta wondering if he may have knocked himself really hard or if there was something bothering him that had gotten stuck in the padding. It's interesting that where he did react to the hoof testers (sole, mainly outside near heel) was where he had a big divot in his heel and where he also had a large bruise. We plan on monitoring that hoof really well. I've got pictures... so I'll try to post them later.

Other then all that, Gus is really thriving back at B's. His weight is finally back to where I'd like it to be and he's looking wonderful. He recently received his annual body clip and looks fabulous. I just wish we could get his muscling back up so he looked even better.

Food-wise, he's basically on the same diet he's been on all summer. He's getting 2lbs of Progressive ProAdvantage Grass Formula ration balancer, along with about 6lbs of alfalfa pellets daily. Both of those are divided equally between two meals. His supps are pretty basic. He is getting MagOx 56% (10g), MSM (10g sometimes 20g), and Flex Force HA (1oomg). I'm thinking that if he needs more calories (fat) this winter, I'll either add in the Cool Calories 100 again or add in rice bran.

So, pictures are to come. Eventually.