What the heck?

So today I went out to ride Gus. That's nothing new. But boy was he acting strange today. When I went out to get him from his turnout, he was laying down in the hay pile. That in itself is nothing new. Get Gus all groomed and tacked up and proceed into the arena. He's fine walking around but then another horse comes in. That's not new. What is new though is him hollering. He starts straining to see out of the windows. I get him focused and get after him to keep walking forward.

Well... I ask for the trot and he's a bit short and choppy-strided. I try and ask for a more forward trot and instead get a massive buck/bolt/snarky twist thing. Great. Just what I don't need. Anyways, I make him walk and ask for a trot again. Then, once he was nice about it, I had him walk again and dismounted. We walked for a couple laps around the arena. Don't know what his issue was. Really weird that he was acting that way.

When we got back into the barn I made sure to apply some Sore No More to both stifles. We'll see how things go later on this week. I did notice that he didn't want to lift up his LH when I cleaned it either... so who knows what's going on. I suppose time will tell, as always.

Gringo isn't any better either. I think he's worse then ever. He walked into the barn like an old man. Going to be looking at other options, as far as pain management goes. He's been on (currently weaning off of) firocoxib (Previcox is the brand name) and has also been on bute and aspirin. I ordered some BL Pellets to try... so we'll see how that goes. They should be later in the next week or two. Otherwise, off to the drawing board again.

I did contact J (the farrier) to see if we can change things again when Gringo's due for a reset. I just don't think what we're doing now is helping him at all... it's hindering him, I believe. Again, only time will tell.

Both boys got dewormed today. Gringo also got his birthday "lunch". Gus was double dosed with Equimax. Turns out that onchocerca can settle in the eyes and lead to ERU. Well, Gus has ERU and has been having some flare-ups. So, we'll see if the double dose helps. I do plan on giving another dose of plain ivermectin in two weeks and then a couple days later the BO will be giving him his standard deworming (which is usually plain ivermectin also).

Any updates on the aforementioned deworming will be blogged about. I'm hoping to see some changes with Gus. But, who knows? Still waiting to hear from the BF and his parents about whether or not the boys can move in. We'll see... I should know by the end of the month.