First Ride of the Fall

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. 

Hoof Pictures, again

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.

Gringo - Video At Last

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. 

Happy LABOR Day!

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.