Busy busy busy
Three busies, I rode all three. Radar I hacked up to my friend's this morning. He was great up there but a pain in the proverbial rushing to get home. Fun though, silly boy!
Jazz I hacked up onto the hilltop where he did some fantastic flying changes on a lumpy field, and some great canter walk too. Lovely boy!
Campero. Ooooh. Well! He was stiff to start off, and tripping, and clearly unsound on a corner, stiffer to the right than the left. As we carried on walking around his stiffness wore off, he stopped tripping, and he began to walk quite nicely but nothing special. I tried some trot but he was unsound on the bends. I carried on walking and tried some half pass and leg yield at which he is simply superb. He freed up quite well by then and was doing a really nice walk, so I asked for trot again, and he was sound. I couldn't feel a duff step anywhere on the single 20m circle that I did in each direction.
So ........ Foot sensitivity wise he is not feeling a grit/plastic surface which gives under his feet and packs right up into his soles. Navicular wise he stiffens up at any time he stands still for any length of time. Overnight or in the barn. But he also works completely free with a slow warm-up. This is great news. I think we can understand what is going on inside his feet, with tendon damage that stiffens up just like we would if we sat down for while with a tendon injury and then got up again (I have one in my knee, so I know!!).
What I need to do now is to get him working to make those feet grow, so that he gets rid of those long, long toes as soon as he can. Until they are gone, he can't break over early enough and I am concerned about the strain on the main tendons in the back of his legs. I am tickled pink with his heel development, with frogs taking all the weight that they should be and good bars. In shoes, he had one digital cushion much spongier than the other, and I am already finding it harder to tell the difference. I have the impression that his soles are less flexible under my finger pressure too, which I hope is a measure of increasing thickness and not just dryness. His eating is now completely normal and all extra wiring has been removed from his hayrack in the stable. He has also been promoted to a hayrack in the barn from a small hole haynet.
I did manage to confuse him by trying to get him to free up his shoulders in walk, and he offered me a superb piaffe :-)))) I was so disappointed to have to stop him, it really isn't the time to pressurise his hocks right now, but it felt ace!
C
ps he did hump his back at the WOW saddle airbags at first, but Nikki had told me he was a good boy, just not a terribly brave bear, so I rode on and he was fine after a few strides. It's not an uncommon reaction to airbag saddles.
posted by cptrayes @ 7:40 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
How long has he been with you? This is amazing progress, to be able to ride him already. Are you doing something to his feet most days?
Makes me feel guilty that I gave up on barefoot and put shoes back on.
"Not a terribly brave bear" - too cute. Seriously though, amazing progress in such a short period of time.
I thought so too ML, when Nikki called him that :-)
Judith please don't feel guilty. The barefoot thing isn't easy with some horses. With some, it takes perfection in the diet balance, a lot of time, perfect living/exercise conditions and often a bit of a pig-headed personality by the owner. If it didn't work for you, it didn't. Shoes don't seriously damage most horses, Campero is one of the unfortunate ones.
I don't touch his feet, I'm leaving them to balance themselves. (there's a bit on uknhcp about exactly how I trimmed them if you want to read it.) The big thing with him was his very strong reaction to grass sugars. The next was cracking the excess insulin production. That's taken away most of the sensitivity problems, which is leaving us with classic "navicular" - lame on corners and stiff when first moving. He's been here ten days tomorrow but I don't rule out increasing sensitivity yet, it often happens after a time delay.
C
I'm back, lovely progress, and envious of your unscheduled Piaff ;-)
Blooming freezing down here, but joyously dry, chain harrowed the fields and I am now feeling more positive about the spring sorting out the rest of the mess winter made of my place!!
Tracey B
Can't wait to do it for real Tracey!
C
What fun! First a humorous ride on the famous Radar on the way out and radaR on the way back. Then, world take note, Jazz a "lovely boy!!" Didn't think I'd hear that a few years back. *G*
And then such good news with Campo. The piaffe must have been fun, but you were right, it can be very hard on the hocks. He sounds like such a sweetheart.
Post a Comment
<< Home