Getting Fitter

TC's injections are scheduled for this coming Tuesday! And I had kind of forgotten about this, but he was scheduled to get his teeth done and his inoculations yesterday, so I had to quickly call the clinic back to reschedule his injections to a week later since I didn't want him having to be sedated two days in a row. 

My local vet was the one who did his teeth and I guess TC had quite a ramp on the right side of his mouth with a callus near where his bit was. Maybe that's why he decided earlier this month to say no thanks to riding? I was kind of expecting him to be his normal fall/winter self a bit earlier this year. So hopefully he feels better soon!

She also said that he was down to a body condition of 5! So that was great news. She didn't want him to gain any weight, but the fact that he is finally losing weight makes me feel much better. We've actually been able to add not only the 2lbs of the ration balancer each day, but also another 2lbs of hay. I'm hoping to still add more hay, but the fact that he's losing weight while I'm able to increase his food is excellent progress. 

He's a cute one, these are old pictures

And why? Because he's on his fitness plan! We are at 12 minutes of trot and I'm going to keep him there for a while longer while I combine sets. On Wednesday this week, we did our last 30 second sets, and now we are going to 45 seconds. A week of that and we'll go to 1 minute sets, and so on. 

The reason why I'm taking that slow is because he's still breathing a little hard throughout and getting a bit sweaty. Mostly it's just been a bit hot and he's growing his winter coat (we don't clip here, the weather is pretty mild), but I don't want to push it. 

I'm also starting to put some pressure on him to be a bit more energetic. Nothing unfair, but just working on responsiveness to my aids. He's gotten duller and duller over the years, likely due to being in pain of course, but it's also made me lazier with my aids. Like I know he's not going to respond, so I'll accidentally give him mixed signals. So I'm working on that myself, trying to rewrite my own level of responsiveness, while asking him to be more responsive himself. 

He spent the first however many years of his undersaddle life being told to slow the fuck down and stop running away with me, he kind of never learned to be super forward in a relaxed and responsive way. So now that he's starting to feel better and offer a bit more, I'm just pairing it with the aids I want him to respond to. 

Still so smiley

He's definitely run off a few times in the last week that I've been working him, which is honestly great news! This summer was the first time where he stopped wanting to be turned out. For years, he's needed at least one turnout to gallop around (he lives in a pasture, but he likes to run in the sand, now I understand why!) every couple of weeks it seemed. He'd roll and then run and buck, and occasionally come harass me to do liberty work. This summer he slowly stopped wanting to run around. 

So when I'm working him (all at the trot right now, I want to wait on the canter a bit longer), every now and then, he zips off and then stays in canter. I've been letting him do that since I want to keep encouraging forward! But it's been great to see these tiny steps back toward normalcy. 

I love how absurd he is

I'm really excited about these injections! I think it's going to be super interesting to see how he handles it. I also really hope this makes the difference in him actually putting on some muscle. That might take some canter work though. I guess we'll find out!

First Bodywork Session

TC had his first session with our new bodyworker on Friday morning. She came highly recommended and I was super impressed!

TC mad about bodywork lol

I gave her a brief history and she got started. TC was pretty upset that she wasn't there just to watch him perform and laugh at his antics. He's had a history of being kind of annoying to equine professionals because his life force is powered by admiration. So when she ignored him and started working on him for HIS benefit and not laughing at him for HER benefit, he was frustrated. 

She made her way around him and he started really biting at her, which I did my best to prevent and she handled well. He really doesn't mean it (he's never really *bitten* anyone, just nipped at), but especially in the last few years he's been progressively less comfortable with being worked on. Probably because he's been so uncomfortable in his body. Like, he's never wanted to be in his body at all, and then when he hurts and you really start to uncover some of that, he doesn't handle it very well. I mean same. 

We did get some really good releases toward the end, and we discussed how he was probably quite tight and in some pain, so hopefully this helps with that. 

TC mad about the back on track hock
wraps I got him

Her report was that he was VERY tense in his front end - his neck, shoulders, pectorals, and the thoracic trapezius. She also did feel that he was tight in his lumbar, but she thought that was a result of the front end being so tight. She recommended the same things we're already doing: trot poles and not doing much riding until he put on muscle. And she said that bodywork once a month for a while would really benefit him, so I'm going to aim to get her out in mid to late November. 

This weekend I put him back to work. On Saturday I just led him to the arena and we did his trot sets (he is at 12 minutes of trot in 30 second intervals), then I led him on the tracks to get back to the barn. Then on Sunday we did our normal routine, where I get on him bareback in the halter and take him on the tracks to warm up, then get off and longe him in the arena, then get back on bareback in the halter and go back on the tracks to cool down. That seems to help him mentally, like maybe he feels like he's in real work getting ridden. 

I could really convince myself that he was looking better. He seemed more comfortable being forward and going through the poles. He also seemed to be using his body better, like his neck was nicely stretched out and no matter where he had it, it didn't look braced. He also seemed nicely lifted in his back, which I had been noticing, but he looked less hollow in that thoracic trapezius over the weekend which was very positive. 

She does a better job of playing along
when she's mad at me (lies, she bites
me too which is why I dressed her up
as a vampire for halloween)

In theory, the (original lameness who I went to in early Sept) vet thinks I should be riding him by now. But after having it not go super well when I tried last time, I think I want to get him further along first. Currently, I feel like I want to see him start to really pack on muscle, which feels like evidence that his body is feeling good enough to use well, before I consider riding him. Or we'll see how things go. I'm trying to just listen to him and see how things go vs putting him on any sort of schedule. 

He does have injections scheduled for Wednesday! I realized that he also has his teeth and inoculations on Thursday, so I might push the injections out a week so that he doesn't have to be sedated two days in a row, but they will be happening in the next couple of weeks. I'm going to have him see yet another vet for them because I wanted him to do them at a vet clinic and my local vet works out of her truck. I also think it'd be useful to get another vet's opinion on his x-rays. I might have this vet take rads of his front feet. Or I might have my local vet do them on Thursday during his teeth/shots so that I can get her take on him, and then I can bring them to injection day. 

Another animal who is mad at me - I let children
ride him (she did great, it was her first time riding
off the leadline on the tracks, I was right there but
my brother tried to get me hidden in that photo)

And after this, that's kind of it right? He had a full lameness exam, we changed his shoeing, he got a full nutritional overhaul, he got bodywork (and will get it ongoing), he's getting his teeth done, and he's getting injections. I dunno where else I can stuff money into this horse (outside of saddle fitting which I will do when he's ready). So now we just see whether all of this is enough to get him back, or whether I'll be horse shopping in early 2027. Or maybe it'll be both!

Back to Longeing

TC and I had some okay rides a couple of weeks ago but starting last Friday, he really got unhappy about going into the arena. The next day, I attempted a ride and the moment I got on him, he whirled around and tried to take me out on the trails. That was my sign to change something. 

So our new routine is for me to ride him bareback in the halter on the tracks to warm up (well, it was before the rain came and probably washed out the tracks for a bit), then we longe in the arena to do his trot sets, then we get back on bareback and cool down on the tracks again. 

He was much happier with that arrangement, although he's still a bit reluctant going into the arena. I feel bad that he took a turn for the worse again, but this is going to be a bit of a learning curve for both of us. He's not entirely happy with the longeing, but I've been trying to make it more fun for him now that he's up to 10 minutes of trot (in 30 second intervals with lots of walking). I don't know if he'll ever think longeing like this is fun, but it's better than riding, which is a lot more emotional for both of us. 

And it's been fun to go out on the trails again with him! We have some very questionable trees further up the hill, so it's just on the tracks so far, but once the trees get cleared out, I'll start taking him up the bigger hills. 

We had a Great Egret visit the ranch
yesterday! We avoided it by going on
this diagonal trail but TC still saw it 

Our next steps are mostly joint/body related. 

First, on Friday he sees a new bodyworker for the first time. I'm excited to have her out monthly to help me understand what is going on in his body. It's hard to see small changes over time. Like he's losing weight and I didn't really notice until my farrier came out and said "wow he looks much better! he's lost some weight!" and I took a good look at him and realized that yes, he had lost weight. So I want to keep other people coming out to see him and evaluate him with fresh eyes. 

I'm also hopeful that she can help me start to unwind his back a little bit! He's much looser in his back now than he was before, and he's lifting through his thoracic sling better too. But he's still a bit stiff in his back while he's moving, and hopefully she can help with that.

He's lost a notch in his belt!

Another thing that will help will be (potentially) Adequan, I'm considering getting some from my vet to help give him a bit of a boost this fall. Joint support has changed so much since I had joints I had to worry about though, that maybe that isn't a thing anymore. But she's coming out next week for dentals, so we'll discuss that.

I'm also scheduling joint injections too! I'm going to take him to the clinic for those and am aiming for early November, which puts us right around his second shoeing cycle. We'll see what the availability is though. 

And I had to do something more immediate too, I ended up ordering BOT hock wraps for him from RW. I dunno if they're really going to help or not, but they made ME feel better, and that was worth it. I figure it can't help and that if he can wear them when I brush him/get him ready, maybe it'll make him feel better too. 

I've at least got the pony to ride!

I'm excited to get to the next phase, which will be saddle fitting. But that's not going to happen until I can get more topline on him. I think seeing his topline grow is going to be a huge sign that I'm on the right track. 

But my plan with saddle fitting is still forming so I've been thinking about it more. There's a local used tack store nearby that has a TON of saddles, so I might take his measurements down there in the next month and sit in a bunch of saddles myself. The woman who owns it is actually VERY good at saddle fitting, so I've told her that I'm going to have her come out when TC is ready for a saddle. 

I figure that's my best bet while he's steadily improving but not quite back to full work/full muscling. I don't really want to go the new/custom saddle route again unless it's very clear that he'll be back to work. I don't mind my postage stamp saddle for the occasional arena rides and then mostly riding him bareback if all we're going to do is mess around/trail ride. So I'm happy to have a used saddle as an option with someone who I know will put the horse first! 

TC's Nutritional Overhaul

I got the testing back on my hay last week so I decided to sign up for FeedXL to see what we were looking at nutritionally. 

TC has had some real issues with weight gain this year. To the point where he was so fat that I tested him for IR. He tested negative but there was still clearly something wrong, since he was unbelievably fat on almost no food and was super hungry. The vet wanted him back in work so that he could lose weight, so once his feet were feeling better, that's what we did.

(My coworkers thought it was funny that I tested my fat horse for horse diabetes and now he is on a fitness plan.)

We finally got to go on the tracks
together again, it was so fun

I knew that FeedXL wasn't going to go well for us but it really wasn't good. But it's okay, it's something to strive for and fix as soon as we can.

Obviously the first big red flag is that he isn't eating enough for his size. I know. But we have already been able to increase his food since we got home from the vet AND he's still losing weight, he's very close to being where I want him at this point which is great. I'm putting him to work as quickly as I can without making him uncomfortable, knowing that we still need to get his injections. 

The next big issue is a multitude of vitamins and minerals that he isn't getting enough of. This is obviously because he simply isn't eating enough and because we had to cut his alfalfa back entirely to keep him from ballooning up too much. It recommended a ration balancer, so over the weekend I picked one up and am slowly getting him up toward the 2lbs recommended daily amount. 

Finally, it cited that he wasn't getting enough protein, and some other important things for muscle growth. Which is also kind of obvious given that it's like he's on a celery diet. Luckily the ration balancer should correct the protein too!

And of course, as he gets to a manageable weight, I'm excited to add hay. I've already got a plan for that as I'm able to. I'm hoping within a month to be able to increase the hay and by the end of winter, to have his diet completely balanced. 

I had to prep my arena for rain
yesterday, first step is dragging

But it reminded me that this is going to be so much more complicated than I initially thought. Ideally, we would stick him back on alfalfa, give him twice the hay he's getting now, maybe even get him onto a muscle builder. But he'd be at risk of foundering in no time. 

I can't emphasize enough how slowly this went down and how interconnected all of this is. I think I'm piecing together what went wrong in 2020 and how things continued to get worse over the years. Hopefully knowing that means that I can reverse it and get my horse back. 

It's easy to slowly slide into dysfunction and then you look around like... what the fuck happened? And now we have to climb back out. And that's also going to be slow. 

And the second step, rolling!

So that's what we are doing. We are going to slowly improve his feet, slowly bring him back into work, slowly add back the calories and nutrients he needs. All while trying to keep him happy and increasingly healthier. It really sucks, and I feel terrible, but I'm trying to just look ahead. 

I may still get the nutritionist to take a look. FeedXL is great, but I think it showed me that we're in a much weirder spot than just him being kinda fat. So I'm probably going to see what she says too. For now, we can start with the ration balancer though! 

Working On My Footing

I posted about repairing my arena earlier this week and this post is going to be about what I'm working on right now with it. 

This tractor has done a lot of arena work

My arena footing is concrete sand and I've had it in there for a long time now. It's the footing that Rico and I were riding on when we were competing and generally I've liked it.

When we first put the footing in, it was about 3.5 to 4 inches, but over the years it has compacted. You drag at around 1 inch, so with enough watering, dragging, and riding on it, the bottom layers of sand compact and then you're left with less loose sand. This has meant that over the years, we need to bring in transfers of sand to add to it. 

I used up the last of the sand pile a little while ago and when TC started rehab this fall, I decided that I wanted a little deeper footing, so I ended up dropping my drag a bit so that it would fluff up the arena a bit more. I wanted to avoid bringing in more sand before the winter hit. That worked and it's been much softer for his sad little feets ever since. 

Formerly a sand pile, now storage for
my jumps and my roller!

One major issue with concrete sand is that it lacks the stability that a lot of arena sands have. It's not nearly as bad as beach sand, which has round grains and feels terrible to ride on. But it's not as stable as silica sand or a footing with additives like fabric. However, silica and fabric can then be too stable where they feel hard. Honestly, my sand feels great to me when it's properly watered, but I have considered replacing it. That'll be a conversation for another day though. 

In order to keep the footing as stable as possible for TC during his rehab, I've started to obsess over the arena watering situation. 

I circled roughly where the sprinklers are located

I have five sprinklers in my arena, and they do a decent job at watering it... as long as there is no wind. And also as they've aged, they don't quite get to the middle of the arena comfortably anymore. I've ordered a couple of new sprinkler heads to see if I can help them out, but I also stopped to pick up a lawn sprinkler and a hose at my local hardware store. 

It works well! I can just drag it into the middle of the arena when I get to the ranch and then I can shut it off when I get TC into the arena. I'm still working out exactly how to set it up so that it actually waters where I want it to, but for the most part it does what I want it to (keep the middle of the arena saturated). 

TC appreciates the sprinklers

Another issue I've had is that even when the arena gets saturated, when it's warm, the water evaporates really quickly. So for example, my watering takes 1 hour 15 minutes, with each sprinkler running for 15 minutes. By the time that the last sprinkler goes off, the first sprinkler area has already had 45 minutes of the sun beating down on it. 

I'm considering in the spring using an arena additive that will help retain the moisture. I haven't done a huge amount of research yet, but I do like the idea and will look into it as it gets hotter and dryer. 

Lots of tractor work this year!

Next post on the arena I'll share some of the ideas I've had to make more permanent improvements to it. Such as expanding it, squaring it off, re-grating it, getting new footing, dropping my sprinkler system into the ground, or all of the above. Not sure when that post will come out since I haven't written it yet and I'm still surprising myself by how consistent I've managed to be posting again after literal years off. 

New Shoes & First Rides

TC saw his farrier yesterday and got his new fancy 3D printed pads on! His feet definitely look better and I'm glad that we made this change. 

The pads he was in previously were just flat pads. They were good enough to protect his soles from the hard ground, but outside of that didn't do much for him. These new pads are frog support pads, which should allow him to grow a bit more heel, since we've done as much as we can with the trim to correct his angles. They also have holes, both in the frog area where my farrier put composite to hold the pads on, and in the toe/sole area to allow for better drying. 

Aren't they cool??

The drying is important because one theory my farrier has is that in the summer when it's super dry and hard, he plays in his water and his feet get soaked and soft, and then he pounds on them, which causes them to somewhat disintegrate. So we addressed both of these issues with these new pads!

My farrier is the tiniest bit worried about leaving his heels a little more curved under than normal. Her belief is that she'd rather leave a short but strong heel versus a longer heel that is at risk of being underrun. However, she will see him again in 4 weeks and I am to let her know if he suddenly says no thank you to his new trim/shoes. 

Updated feet pics

Definitely better than before

I took him out afterwards (since he's never had issues after the farrier comes) and actually decided to ride him. I'd been really on the fence about riding, wanting him to gain more strength first and even considering getting him back to full work before trying. But on Sunday I decided that I wanted to get a baseline, even if it meant feeling discouraged because not much had changed. 

I'd taken him out just in the halter because I was convinced he'd say no to doing very much, so I was prepared to longe him. Instead, he was pretty happy to work! I think he'd rather be ridden than longed, so on Tuesday after he got shod, I decided to fully tack him up with the bridle and everything. 

He's so weird

The first really good sign was that he wanted to walk down the road! I haven't wanted to after the initial vet visit because of the mechanical laminitis he'd shown and he honestly hadn't been asking. I kept him on the softer ground and then when we turned onto the paved part of the road, I asked him to turn around. He was bummed, but I really want to slowly introduce that back just in case the road walking was the cause of some of his foot issues. Juggling all these changes has been a challenge, but I really want to be a good experimenter here. 

We're doing 6 x 30 second trot sets each direction for a total of 6 minutes of trot. In between, we are walking for 30 seconds. It's enough to get him breathing a little hard and a little sweaty, but he's able to hold his posture the entire time which is the most important part. I think I'm seeing good changes in his posture too! But I could be making that up. 

Undersaddle, I can tell it's a little harder for him, but he was still very willing to do the work! Like, I haven't felt him willingly trot from walk in a while. He said yes every time I asked him to trot and had really quite good quality transitions both up AND down. In the past, he'd balk into the upward transition (sometimes shifting weight sideways to get out of it) and he'd slam on the brakes at any hint of a downward transition. 

And again, in the trot, I couldn't feel a balk. I could feel a little weakness or a little hesitation to continue, but it felt more strength related or cardio related (and him knowing our 30 second routine + my alarm dings). And if I asked him to keep going, he never slammed on the brakes. 

I tried keeping him clean after hosing
him down and I failed

It was so fun too, playing with the connection and the transitions. I'm riding in the TCS, which gives me limited stability, so my mantra is to just keep it slow, active, and straight in the neck. If I tell myself to keep it slow, I can really focus on maintaining the tempo rather than rushing him like we had gotten to before. Active mostly meaning that I don't have to bother him about continuing to move forward. And straight in the neck because he gets a little folded at the base of his neck careening it inward. 

He's a little better in the contact tracking right than left, and a little straighter left than right. I think my goal through this rehab is to really address those things. We certainly have the time. 

The contact especially is something we just haven't worked on in a super long time. He kind of floats above my hand tracking left and if I ask him to really take my hand, he wants to offer me other things instead, like bending too much. To the right, he gets a little passage-y (in a bad way) if I ask him for anything beyond what he's offering. 

Then in walk, the contact is really funny, it seems to shut him way down, where if he's on a loose rein, we get a pretty stellar walk, but on the contact he slows his tempo down quite a lot. He's kind of always been like that, but I want to work on it given the amount of walk we're going to be doing. Hopefully by the end of winter he'll be much more confident in the contact at the walk. I think it's mostly a strength issue, he has a humongous walk and not a lot of topline right now. 

I ran out of TC photos so here are some pictures I
took at a swamp I went to recently

By the end of our trot sets, he was actually really forward and sensitive in trot! Which I think is another good piece of the puzzle for me. In the past, he'd sometimes get a little explosive at the end of rides, like he'd start out balking and then at some point, he would just explode and then be completely tight and anxious for the rest of the ride. Probably because something was hurting and he was finally like OKAY FINE I WILL DO IT and then was distraught. 

This was one of the first times in a while where I felt like I had him forward because he was really ON vs him being forward due to the aftermath of an explosion. So I think now that I've addressed a lot of his pain (still planning on doing bodywork and injections, but clearly the feet were a big source of discomfort), a big piece of the puzzle will be to get him fitter than I had him in the past. It clearly takes some time for him to warm up and become a little more sensitized to the aids. By the time I had him in a place where I thought we could really do something yesterday, we were done with the ride. Which is totally fine for where we are right now. And probably shows him that when he becomes more forward, we end our ride. 

I saw three new birds there though!

So lots of things to consider as we continue on this rehab attempt! I'm feeling hopeful, but I'm also fully acknowledging that this is right around the time of year where things start to go better for us. I'm going to maintain that we will not know whether this horse is truly back to his old self until I'm able to ride him through next summer without balking. Fingers crossed though!!

Arena Repair

I've been putting some additional effort into my arena over the last year or so. This will probably end up being three posts - one about the arena repair I did last year (this one), one about working the footing I'm doing now, and one about the options I'm considering for the future. 

When the arena was put in, we really didn't know much about arenas, so it's grated in the wrong direction, all the water in the winter rushes diagonally down to the gate and into the creek. Steadily this took away my base from the corner by the gate, which made my oddly shaped arena even more triangular. 

The creek is along those trees at the top of the
photo, the gate is on the righthand side at the top,
the longside on the bottom (which is the most normal)
is a bit less than 40 meters if you're curious

My IG story explaining

The damage was pretty crazy! We caught it about a year ago and I'm glad we caught it when we did. As we swept and drew away the sand, we kept finding all these waterways. 

All the damage to the base

Another angle of the damage

Luckily, my brother is amazing, I got him to help and we both dug out the long side of the arena by the creek so that we could allow for more drainage on that side. 

Digging out the sides of the arena

We also got a load of blue rock and did our best to repair the base and somewhat plug the gate area up from allowing water to go that way. It was definitely a learning experience.

First layer of base rock

Second layer, we'd water and then pound it

Many more layers

After the first rain, we learned a few things and fixed them! 

Water will just find somewhere else to go oops

That definitely worked, the base itself I haven't ridden on all that much, but it at least prevented more damage from occurring, and opening up the long side for more drainage did help. 

MUCH better

Since it was better, but still not perfect, I ended up investing in a roller. It's filled with water and we can easily hitch it up to the ATV and roll the arena in not very much time at all! The roller made a HUGE difference, with barely any sand (in comparison) leaving the arena in the last few rainstorms of the year. 

The dog didn't want to be left out

When I post about this again, I'll go into more detail about what I'm doing right now to further improve my arena situation. And then we'll talk about the future since I'd love some opinions on that!

Making Progress!

TC is now up to 6 minutes of trot total per day, we do 6 x 30 second trot sets in each direction. I've added in some trot poles since he seems to be interested in that and WOW I haven't seen him trot like that in years. I really do think he's feeling better with his shoes set back and the modified trim. He's not entirely excited to go forward at all times, but he's also very much out of shape and rehab is boring. I don't always love the gym but as I get stronger I feel better about it. 

He's also completely stopped lifting his legs and asking for scratches during grooming, which is wild to me. Such a small change can really make a huge difference I guess. And he's MUCH less nippy when we do my basic bodywork stuff. He went through a phase where any time I'd work on anything, he'd really go after me with his teeth. But now he seems to just enjoy it, and you can feel it in the muscles of his back and hindquarters too - they feel much more maleable even 3 weeks after his shoes got set back. There's still more to do but he feels great. 

He was helping with fencing the
other day

Unfortunately since he feels good, he is pretty bored. And now he isn't allowed to have his salt! I'd removed it about 24 hours before his chemistry panel, so it was unsurprising that the only thing that didn't come back normal was his sodium + chloride. We think that he's just really messed with his mineral balance just downing salt and water all day long, so I'm anticipating that there will be some time where he has to adjust. Right now he's taken to eating a wooden post... I'm hoping he's just bored/missing his salt, but if he continues to chew on the post, I'll chat with my vet again since that's not normal for him. 

Add to his lack of salty entertainment, he hates his boring rehab plan since so much of it is walking in the arena. I'm still restricting him from walking down the road, since I want to give him time to recover from the mechanical laminitis. He really hasn't been asking to go down the road, but I'm sure once we get in the arena each day and do our 15 minutes of walking on the longe line before his trot sets, he'd rather be anywhere else. 

I made him work in the misty rain and he hated it

Then we do our trot sets and that's where he seems the most happy. He gave me very happy ears on Monday after his first trot set where he pressed his ears so forward that they were almost facing each other. I'm trying to challenge him with some forward and back and some cavalletti work and I think he likes that a lot. 

But then it's back to walk for the last 15 minutes of the arena work, and sometimes afterwards we walk up in the hills. Anything to get him burning calories and strengthening his body. Soon, we'll be doing more trot work and eventually cantering, which will allow me to shorten his warm up and cool down a bit. And we'll also start trail riding undersaddle hopefully this fall. So it's going to get more interesting!! But it's hard to explain that to him. 

My coworkers all think it's hilarious that I tested my fat horse for horse diabetes and now he's on a fitness plan that he hates. We were at the gym yesterday with our personal trainer and it came up because I found out that he and I use the same interval training app! Now TC knows how I feel at the gym when he pulls out the Tabata timer for core work at the end. 

He needs to be involved in everything

Next week, he gets his new pads and then I'm going to schedule the next round of things I want to torment him with. On the docket are:

1. Nutritionist - even though he doesn't have EMS, I want to make sure that he's on the right track to lose weight with as much roughage as I can get into him. I'm a little worried about ulcers when he's consuming this little hay. I also want to talk to her about the salt obsession and make sure that his minerals are perfectly balanced. 

2. Bodyworker - I think I'm going to start having a local bodyworker come out every month (maybe more frequently to start) to help unwind his back. Although he's actually doing a good job of this himself! I want to probably start this in mid October to give him a week or two on his new shoes/pads. 

3. Joint Injections - I'm debating delaying these a little bit, maybe early November or even waiting until spring. I feel like I'll get more bang for my buck in the spring since that's when he's historically started having problems BUT I also feel like I should do what I can now to get him comfortable so that I can use the winter to put muscle on him. So far he isn't showing any issues being forward on the longe line (outside of what I can categorize as boredom, which is just at the walk), so I might wait until I'm ready to ride him. We'll see, I at least want to get some info from the vet office about the injections since I've decided to do them at a vet office vs at the ranch with my local vet. 

Gotta check everything

Fingers crossed the new shoes + pads next week go well!