Pic: Kingsley caught mid-sneeze/air blow after our ride today
Pocholo is gone. I barely turned my head around the fact he was going and the transport company picked him up several days later. It's just Kingsley and I again.
Today was the first day of Kingsley's "schooling" under the saddle. All the ridden work so far was on straight lines out hacking.
First I introduced him to gentle serpentines just meandering around the trees. It's incredible how difficult these somewhat easy movements are for him. This is not to say he can't turn but there is no suppleness or bend in his body.
He also worries on his own so I will take him out more and more by himself so he can learn to trust me and find comfort in simply being with the rider rather than having Pocholo's escort.
He can be sharp and nervous when hacked on his own but there were moments today when he was listening to me and relaxed into the tasks pretty well.
His feet are giving me a bit of a headache. He is great on tarmac and any even ground but is uncomfortable on stoney, rough surfaces right now. They don't grow very smooth either and his right fore (the most problematic one) appears to be flatter than it was a few weeks ago.
One thing I keep thinking of is that he simply need to move better and move more. His diet could be fine-tuned too by doing the hay and grass analysis but as his forage sources are inconsistent I am not sure how much information we can gain from the analysis.
He's been turned out in a large field for the last week too (from morning or late morning if frosty till about 3:30). The grass there is very poor but all the horses seem to spend their time chopping it :-/
He was also vaccinated about 10 days ago which I am told can have effect on their feet.
Technically the options could be:
- to muzzle him but then he will be without any forage for half a day...
- stable him and feed hay only - this option comes with him being mentally unhappy and difficult to work with. It's also a no-no from the physiotherapy point of view.
- get him hoof boots??
- leave him as it is and see if more exercise slowly strengthens his hooves? Due to all his problems we are paranoid about doing more exercise but perhaps this is where we are going wrong...
It's now been over 5 months since his azoturia and severe feet soreness so I guess we will just have to bite the bullet and get more quality work into him.
He always changes his way of going on different surfaces, right now he loves tarmac and has real bounce to his steps on it. He is less keen on mud and struggles through but then not in any other way than all the shod horses I've been hacking in these same conditions.
On rough and stoney surfaces he picks his way through and makes the steps shorter.
On a good going on the grass his steps feel similar to how they feel on tarmac but his back is looser on the grass.
I think he made a great progress in-hand and we are now able to walk very slowly sideways, backwards, forwards etc with much improved balance and coordination so we can only try now to achieve similar body control ridden.
I will stick to the same exercises for 2 weeks so I can compare his movement reliably.
6 comments:
Well, even on Exmoor we got to the point this week that the most sensitive horses couldn't be out on the fields during the day - frost, sunshine and mild daytime temps are a trigger for sky-high sugar levels...
It will change again, I am sure, but it fluctuates day to day and is incredibly difficult to keep horses safe.
Personally, I'd work K on tarmac as much as you can - it will be fantastic for his feet, mentally will give him chill-out time with his rider and will cheer him up:-)
I'll see if he could stay in the 'muddy' paddock with some hay instead of the fields.
And tarmac travel it is then! :)
Oh, I'm glad to see Nic's comment about the tarmac - that's what I was thinking too. Tarmac also seems to be really great for wearing hooves to the self-trimming point.
I feel your pain about not being able to have a hay analysis done. I finally had one done on my hay, because it's the first time that I've had a load of hay that will last more than a month or two. Of course, if the hay had been bad I'd be stuck with it anyway since hay is so scarce here right now. It's really a tough balance with barefoot horses!
I love reading your blog i am not the most experienced rider or horse owner but i learn a lot from every post.
I hope his feet get better, the crazy weather we have all been having is causing craziness with all the animals.
jenj - I think I'm going to arrange for that analysis this time as now that Pocholo's gone we have more storage space and could probably order enough hay to last a couple of months. I'm just curious if there is something we can do easily to help him.
Great to hear other horses love tarmac too :)
DancingHorses - thank you for your lovely comment :) I'm glad you can read something useful on here :)
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