He's back!

After an interesting lunge session yesterday, one in which Gus sent me death threats, I came to the conclusion that he's sound again.

I opted to lunge him in just a halter - big mistake. For whatever reason, Gus decided to be super snarky last night and kept sending me death vibes. Meaning, ears pinned back, grumpy expressions, a swinging to the inside hind end, the list really, truly goes on and on.

Moral of the story, he was sound. We lunged for probably 15 minutes total and while he took some really bad steps with the left hind starting off, the front end looked good the whole time.

My plan is to work with Gus tomorrow after work and again either Saturday or Sunday, maybe both if I'm ambitious enough. 

Hmm. Better but still not 100%

I swear, that's the story of Gus's life. Or at least it could sum it up in a nutshell. He's definitely A LOT better then he was last week, but he's still a bit off on that left fore. Yesterday I had him on the lunge for about 10 minutes, w/t/c both directions. He was nicely forward and stretching downward and looked sound. However, going to the right there's still a bit of a bobble in the front. My plan is to lunge him again tomorrow, complete with side reins and then hopefully get a couple rides on him later in the week. By then he'll be off the bute so we'll have an honest idea of how he's doing.

Seriously.

Seriously. I could scream, but it wouldn't solve anything. On to regular news, Gus is lame. Yep. You heard it from me first. He's off again.

Lame is probably a too strong of word to use, so hereforth I'll use the word "off" to describe him. As you may well remember, he's been off a lot lately but typically he'll work through his problems. Well on Wednesday evening, this wasn't to be the case. While Gus looked and seemed okay on the lunge line (specifically going to the left) it was evident the more he was worked (without side reins, mind you) that he was definitely struggling in the front.

Upon palpation, courtesy of B, we found the sore spot. I'm calling it the anterior deep pectoral muscle - though I'm not sure if that's the correct muscle or not. But basically it's the muscle that runs the length of the scapula and then meets the other muscle that runs down the front of the neck - the point of the shoulder/shoulder joint is where the issue lies. AND it's only on the left side that we have problems, as there is absolutely no reaction at all when you palpate the right side.

So, back to the drawing boards. Gus is receiving more R & R, plus a little bute on the side. I did ice his chest on Wednesday evening along with a nice little Sore No More liniment rub. He didn't appreciate either one, go figure. I'm hoping, when I'm out again on Sunday, that he's looking better and feeling better, too.

Gringo was a TROOPER on Wednesday. The vet was out to do his "spring" vaccines, abit six months after the fact. So he should now be all set for moving to the other barn here at the end of the month. We also had bloodwork drawn for his Coggins.

I've never seen Gringo so well behaved for a stranger. He didn't even flinch when she poked him. I was a very, very proud mama. He didn't necessarily care for the intranasal Strangles vaccine, but he was still a good sport.

I did end up deworming Gringo again as well, too. He didn't get dewormed when L was out to trim his hooves a few weeks back, so I went a head and dewormed him before the vet got there. I did a double dose of plain ol' Ivermectin. 

Unfortunately, his new cob-sized bridle does not currently fit, at least in the as-is condition. So, off to find some horse-sized cheek pieces and maybe a new noseband and we should be good to go then. I should post some photos ...

I hate winter.

Okay. So maybe I'm getting a bit dramatic. I do despise winter but only because it's cold, wet and umm cold. Did I already mention that I hate the cold? Well, I do. And it's only October 8th and I'm already sick of this weather. According to the calendar, it's supposed to be fall. So, being fall, we're supposed to have cool night and mild days. Say 50-60 degree highs for the day. Definite NOT having that kinda of weather here in MN currently. I think it's actually drizzling/sleeting at the moment... we need the moisture, but we don't need the cold, least not yet.

On to the ponies. Well, Gringo still has been sorely neglected as of late. On Wednesday this week he's having his annual exam, finally. Then he'll be all set to move back to B's for the winter. Thank goodness he doesn't have any issues with multiple injections at one time ... poor guy. He's definitely going to be aching on Thursday, that's for sure.

Gus. Gus. Gus. Well, what can I say except the fact that he continually causes drama? Well, drama is probably a too strong of word. He isn't lame, at the moment, but he's definitely off. Funny thing is, he works out of it (which is good) but only when he's asked to sit back on his haunches and do a job trot. When we do a full-on dressage trot, he's off. So we still think he's dealing with some arthritis in his front legs (heck, maybe even higher up - like shoulder area?) but for the time being, he's comfortable working through the stiffness.

His new saddle pad(s) from Horze look amazing. I purchase two pads, one in chocolate and one in a smoky blue color. The blue one is absolutely stunning on ... and it fits just like my Joules pad, which is awesome because that's my favorite saddle pad ever.

Anyways, nothing else to report except that I hate this miserable weather.

Wednesday's Recap

Well, I had another nice lesson last night on Gus. After our usual lunge routine (where he had one really nasty almost fall) we started with our undersaddle work. Gus was VERY stiff starting out yesterday - not really sure why. I'm kinda guessing it was likely due to not being worked much at all over the past week, but regardless he did work though it fairly well.

After a few warm-up laps at the trot, we proceeded to work on some 20m circles at the major letters (CBAE). Over the center line, around I and L, B had placed a couple ground poles. We trotted over the poles only when we were on the circles at either B or E. Once Gus figured out that exercise, we moved on to 3-loop serpentines, using the poles.

Canter work was next and that ended up being a bit more challenging. Because we were, once again, doing 20m circles at the four major letters. Which meant that two circles included the dreaded ground poles. Gus figured out quickly that he could just spread his front legs out and canter over the pole, totally defeating the purpose of the ground poles (which I think was to get him to rock back more on his haunches?).

Anyways, we had some really nice moments both on the left lead and on the right. But we again had a very nasty stumble on the left lead ... almost brought us both down. Not sure what happened, I think Gus totally forgot to move his feet. We recovered and went on to end on a positive note.

Last night's lesson focused more on round, forward and soft in the bridle. This was the first time in a couple weeks that we hadn't worked on more of a jog-trot. So our trot work was actually, pleasantly, nice and forward. B even commented on it. Canter work, before the bad stumble, was fabulous - especially to the left. It was a nice, rhythmic 3-beat gait - very "rocking horse" like.

Hoping that Gus is on the up and up. Fingers crossed.

Working "out of it".

Well, Gus is slightly off still on the, what seems to be, left fore. However the more and more B and I look at him the more and more we think it's higher up (say shoulder/back/etc). And as he's done in previous weeks, he did eventually work out of most of the stiffness.

We started off on the lunge and unlike the previous weeks, Gus decided to attempt to kill me again. I lost track of how many times I had hooves flying at my head ... I guess Gus was feeling frisky with the cooler weather. Oh well. I'm used to it.

Once we got past that and started on the undersaddle work, it became evident that Gus wasn't 100% on the left - or at least with the left front. Funny thing was, it was worse going to the right then to the left. Because of that, B thinks we're dealing with something higher up ... perhaps chiropractic will help. I guess I need to save up for that again.

Lesson-wise, we worked on serpentines again and trotting on the second track. We started off with 3 and 4 loop serpentines at the trot. Once those were going well and Gus was starting to loosen up, we proceeded to work on the quarterline/second track. The goal with straightness - and umm, we didn't quite manage that at first but by the end of the exercise we had the straightness almost nailed. We also did some changes across the diagonal using the smaller arena that was set up by working off the quarterline. Those helped Gus stay focused and balanced, with most of his weight back on his hindend.

Canter work started and ended on the quarterline/second track. The objective was straight, balanced and supple. We just about nailed that too. The hardest part was half-halting upon approaching the short side and doing the sorta-kinda turn-on-the-haunches to get a square turn. Gus was much better at the end ... and we actually had some nice canter work on his bad side (aka right side).

This weekend is the show at the barn again. I'm hoping to get a lot more photos on Friday of all the ponies, so stay tuned.

Finally!

Okay, final post for today (Monday). Last Friday Gus finally got his hooves trimmed. He was at just over 9 weeks out and desperately needed to be reset. I guess J finally was able to catch up on horses.

Here's Gus's pretty hooves, three days post trim.

We'll see if his soundness improves with the trim/reset. He was not the greatest, soundness-wise, last week when I had my lesson. I wasn't able to ride today (because I spent HOURS clipping him) so my plan is to head out to the barn tomorrow morning and get in a quick ride before work. I'm hoping he's doing much better with the reset.