Sounder and Saner

So I rode yesterday morning, and I already talked about that ride. But I also went back out last night to do more hand walking. Because who has time for a social life or going to the gym (still can't though because I'm still sick) or sitting at home relaxing?

Smiling angrily because he's hungry

I figured it'd be helpful for a diagnostic point of view. As we're all hoping, the horse is young, big moving, big body-wise, and lives in a stall with a small paddock 24/7, so having a stifle weakness would make sense. It would get worse in the winter, when it's cold and he doesn't move around much, and it would get better when he gets out more.

It's still in the back of my mind that it could be an injury though. Even though the vet doesn't think so. So I'm thinking that doing light work this month is a good idea all around, treat it like a rehab and do lots of walking with minimal work that could aggravate his suspensory or the possible stifle injury. But do enough so that a stifle weakness won't get work. It's a balancing act.

My schedule won't let me go out twice a day (I work an hour away from the barn/home but mostly fuck going to the barn twice a day), but I figured this would be good information, so off I went back to the barn.

At work I worked looked up a lot of information on strengthening stifles and also read some of your comments, which were super helpful in creatively trying to work around the limitations we have here (no turnout, no trails, no hills). One of the things that stood out to me is doing poles, specifically backing up over poles. And another thing was doing walk trot transitions in hand. I could use the jogging too.

So much fucking walking

I pulled TC out and put on his boots, but didn't tack him up with the chambon. We then went into the covered ring and did a bunch of ground work. He bolted twice, but generally was super into what we were doing. And biting me. He thinks that's hilarious.

We did some shallow leg yields, rein backs, walking over poles (there were two poles in the arena already), backing over poles, and even some trotting in hand.

When I was trotting him, he looked sounder than he had been that morning. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmm. Could it be that getting out every 12 hours instead of every 24 had made a difference? Not sure. Because I've primarily felt his lameness rather than seen it, I couldn't be sure that this was better. Maybe he doesn't look as lame (will be getting video this weekend) as he feels.

So dumb

Now, if this was Rico, I would have tied up the lead rope to make reins, and hopped on sans helmet and sans back brace and kicked him around the arena trying to sit his trot. But I'm not stupid. I went to get the bridle and my helmet/back brace. But ugh I was wearing work clothes and mud boots rather than riding boots, and it was like 8:00 so tacking up would delay me by quite a bit.... Whatever, I'd just grab mane and jump off if he bolted.

I hopped on him bareback and we walked around a bit. He's okay with being ridden bareback, though I've only done it a few times. He's not very wide, but he's comfortable. The only thing uncomfortable is when his head goes straight up and you're suddenly sitting on a 2x4 that's about to explode into a million splinters.

I asked for trot and he turned his head back to try to bite my leg like wtf man, you have no saddle, we are not trotting. It took a lot of convincing to get him trotting. He tried to pick up the canter instead, he ran sideways a bit, and he shook his head a lot at me. But eventually we trotted. And actually his trot wasn't too bad to ride bareback! We trotted one circle and he WAS sounder than he had been that morning. Success!

Pony rides are okay but please don't trot me

This morning I headed out to the barn to ride before work. One boss was gone, the other one with two coworkers was in an all-day meeting. I figured that before I asked to switch to riding in the mornings, I should find out if I actually like riding in the mornings. I do. So I'm talking to them on Monday (Mondays I can't ride in the mornings because I have a 9am meeting).

We hand walked all over the facility. It was actually REALLY nice. TC was super quiet after being ridden every 12 hours the last three rides. He was actually so quiet I thought that he might be in intense pain or be sick. He marched happily and quietly all over the ranch before I got into the covered arena. We did one lap in each direction and then I got on to walk.

And he was super quiet with me on him too. I worked a bit on my position. I'm focusing on getting back on the back edge of my seat bones, as lots of conversations this weekend made me realize that I basically sit on the horse like I'm trying to sit on a pin cushion. With the new position, I felt like my stirrups were way too short, so I'll be messing with that soon enough.

Upset because he wants me to put him back

I asked him to trot and..... he was sound! Still feeling a little clunky here and there, especially when we lose power steering, but it definitely felt more like he was weak on the left hind than lame on the left hind. Trainer came in to see him trotting and said that he looked better than he'd seen him in a long time. He was sound and also relaxed and stretching into the bridle. We didn't do anything fun, but just trotting along and looking at ourselves in the mirror (since sometimes me shifting weight to look over there causes him to bolt) and hot damn my horse can be so pretty sometimes.

I was ecstatic. Not only was he totally quiet and fun to ride, he was sound! Sanity AND soundness in the same ride??? What is this nonsense?!

I had to hold myself back from skipping work and riding him all day. We did maybe 3 laps around the whole arena in each direction and then called it a day. He felt SO good in the bridle, a bit hesitant to fully let go and relax, but not at all nutty about anything.

Immediately I talked to him about getting TC on a schedule where the guys hand walk him on the weekdays. We can't quite do every 12 hours, since no one wants to stay late to walk my horse at 7:30pm, and the guys won't be doing the walking over poles/backing over poles/trotting in hand that I did last night, but it's better than him standing in his stall for 23 hours before I get on and expect him to be sound. Eventually that will transition into him getting turnout or him just being in a bigger paddock. But for now I'm not paying for turnout when it's not going to happen much when it rains and there are no big paddocks open.

He looks so little here! He's just narrow

I'm also dumping him onto an expensive joint supplement for a month to see if that helps things too. My mom reminded me (when I called her to get all upset about TC being unsound) that when I first got Rico, he was uneven behind and we put him on Hylasport and he didn't have that issue again until he was much much older. His right hind was just weak. I can't afford Hylasport ($80/month no thanks because I'm already paying like $60 for his calming supplement), so TC is getting put on a Smartpak supplement that has similar ingredients.

I'm sure this isn't the end of our issues with this stifle. And this is classic suspensory behavior, where he'll be sound for a bit and lame for a bit. So I'm absolutely not celebrating yet. But it's really good news that we had a great day of soundness and sanity. And I'm really hoping that we have more and more of those days until that's our norm.