My back is back!

A weird play on words, but my back is finally starting to get back to normal. I think the prescription pain meds (hydrocodone and Flexirl - a muscle relaxer) are helping more then anything else. Thankfully, I've not been needing to take anywhere near the recommended dosage... and when I saw my chiropractor today, she was pleasantly surprised that my back was holding the adjustments better. True, it was still slightly out of alignment, but it's much better then it's been in weeks.

So, yesterday (Sunday), I went riding. First time I've ridden (pain free) in WEEKS. I was so happy. True, it was only 19 degrees F outside, but still better then nothing. I am going to finally take my lesson this week... but I'll be sure that B takes it easy with me. I know my back can't handle too much, as it's still quite weak.

Gus and Gringo are both doing fine. They both were dosed with Anthelcide Eq, an oxibendazole dewormer. The dosage given was 1.5 times their weight. Other then a few looser piles of manure, I never did nothing anything unusual with the powerpak. Still unsure which horse had the softer piles...

Weight wise, Gus is staying the same at around 1079lbs (per the weight tape) and Gringo has gained some, up to about 1045lbs (from around 1000lbs earlier this year).

Gus's grain changed, yet again. Well, actually I haven't changed it too much from what I posted late last month. He's still on 1lb of TC Lite, 2lbs TC Senior and 1/2lb rice bran... but he'll be getting 1lb of beet pulp and 1.5lbs of alfalfa pellets whenever I'm out as an "extra" meal. I may end up having the BO feed either A) more rice bran or B) alfalfa again if I can't get more weight on Gus. I do think I'll be upping the TC Senior again within a couple weeks. Uggh, hard keepers can be a pain in the arse.

Other then that, Gus is wearing his Dover Northwind turnout currently sans neck cover. It's been getting a lot colder and he needs the extra help to keep warm. I'm not sure when I'll pull out the neck cover. I'm thinking when the temps are consistently in the lower teens during the day. Gus does have a decent hair coat on his neck, but... he's use to having the neck covers too.

My only other delimmia currently is that Gringo is rapidly losing the frog in his left front hoof. I've noticed it shrinking over the last couple weeks, but now it's almost all gone (the thick, fleshy part anyways). He's not lame or sore on that hoof/leg at all, even though that is his bad hoof. It's weird. I'd call the farrier, but well he's due out in two weeks anyways... and still not sure what he can do at the moment. I'm thinking that perhaps he's unbalanced in his trim and that's leading to his hoof being loaded (weighted) differently. Hmm. I'll try to remember to post pictures, though you can't really tell much by looking at them. I'm curious, too, wondering if it's thrush. So, as a preventative measure, I've been using the dry cow stuff (forget if it's ToDay or ToMorrow). No changes...

Gus's hooves look a tad funky too, but he's not losing frog. Instead, he's got a deep crack in the heel bulb area. So, I've been dosing his hooves with the dry cow stuff too. Uggh.