# Teaching Diablo to Jump



## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I met Diablo when he was 6 months old. He had been started on leading, grooming, and had run around the round pen a time or two. Around the same time my horse Louie passed away. 
I trained Diablo on the basic groundwork stuff, and always made sure he got that magic from all the horses I'd known before him. I would tell the horses that Louie taught me this so I could show you what it's like to be an amazing horse. 

When he was about to turn 2 I broke him for his then owner to take him to the track. He was the first horse I broke. He went to the track training facility for around 6 months before he made it to the track. He was at the track and got timed as a 2 year old and was fast, but started having some issues with his hind end falling out. Around the same time his half brother had a surgery to cut the patella ligament to stop him from locking up. I was worried Diablo would have permanent damage from this and that he wouldn't have a chance to be the amazing horse I had set him up to be. I knew then that I wanted him to be my horse. 
He took around a year off and I went back to school. Diablo seemed to have escaped peril and was just resting. Better him resting on someone elses budget than my own with school in full swing. 
Then another horse I'd known needed help. Dodge had a terrible summer sore and was being neglected. His owners all though they could handle a mustang, but turned out that Dodge was suffering. I arranged to buy Dodge to take care of him, because for now Diablo was safe. 

I found out a few months later that Diablo would be going back to the track to run as a 3 year old now that he had grown out of the hind end issues a bit. I was upset and told his owner I wanted to buy him. She said ok, but she wanted to try him at the track first. My worst fear was that he would become permanently damaged and that I would still love him enough to want to care for him, even if he were lame, for the rest of his life. 
Diablo was running fast, 3f in 32 seconds. I would drive out to the track to watch his warm ups, and he really seemed happy. He always had his ears perked and was happy to go. 
He ran a race on April 2018. He started fast but gave it away around the last turn. Part of me wanted him to win. Part of me wanted him to lose. When he lost I knew he could be mine!

I moved with Dodge in August, then a month later Diablos owner said I could have him. He got the OK from the vet and the same hauler who brought Dodge picked up Diablo and he was mine!

Diablo took some time off in pasture, until it got very very muddy. Something I wasn't used to. All the wet areas I've boarded have had tons of sand to keep the footing nice, but not this place! Just recently he came up a little lame, then worse and worse. I moved him from pasture to a proper barn. Abscesses came out of all 4 feet, then after 2 weeks of care he was sound once again. His feet still have damage from when I got him that is growing out, but hopefully it will be gone in a few more months. 

Now we are back to riding. Diablo is turning 5 on the 21st of February. I want to start him in a more professional sense. He is a typical track built horse and looks like a real athlete. He is getting visits from the chiropractor as we start bringing him up to riding so that he can use his body well. 

I'm planning to start Diablo jumping, and well, I've hopped him over some tiny verticals just for the fun of it and he was fine with it considering he had no preparation, I just wanted to see what his reaction would be. 

The first steps for us will be walking, some trotting, shortening and lengthening, walking over poles, and working on turning the haunches and forehand. Might do a little trotting over poles as well. Planning this for a couple weeks. 
Hopefully the next steps will be to work more on the trotting over poles, lengthening and shortening the trot, working on a quality canter, and trotting some small crossrails. 
He has good transitions already, but after that might work on getting those really sharp. Will also need to work a lot A LOT on flexion. He is straight, only sorta bends, and has no round in him right now. I think the trotting over poles and the chiropractor will help that, which is why I'm waiting it out before I start refining circles and directional changes. 
I think then I will start doing a combo of jumping little courses (3 jumps?) and working on the flying lead changes. His half brother gave it up pretty quick on the flying changes so I'm hopeful that Diablo has it down too. 

After that it might be in the plans to have some students ride Diablo to help me afford this fantastic barn. He is a total babysitter, but also honest and if you are messing up he will tell you. Perfect combination to learn on, and for him to get some experience. 

Well, that's the plan! Hopefully I'll be able to keep a little log going here of our progress each day. Today is going to be some walking before the chiro arrives, then probably just a rest day tomorrow too, then Thursday is his birthday! Maybe I'll get him out for a little ride then.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Good luck with your horse.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Thanks!
Today I rode Dodge, who will inevitably end up in this journal. Dodge was good starting out then decided to go rodeo bronc on me instead of cantering forward. I stayed on for the 8 seconds then he gave one last good one. I remember looking down when he went up and thinking wow I'm up high. I didn't think Dodge could rear like that, bucks, sure that's his thing. Had a couple witnesses and got some compliments for staying on as long as I did... Lot of expletives yelled in that ride after that. My aeroware outlyne vest should get here tomorrow for riding Dodge and jumping, he's just not really predictable and doesn't pay attention to me unless I ride every step, and were still working on him thinking about taking care of me rather than the other way around. 

As for Diablo, he got a visit by the chiropractor today. She started working on him and immediately started talking about how awesome he is. He really impresses everyone who meets him. He just was still and let her work and was really receptive to the work she was doing. He got his neck spine and pelvis adjusted. She said I should start working him out a lot more and heavily, so that he can get some muscle toning. She was really happy with his conformation and said he is going to be a great horse once he starts working. 

We talked about the rings on his feet, which I haven't been sure about, founder, injury? She mentioned a drug reaction which I hadn't considered. We also talked about how between his 2-3 year he came off the track lame. She said he had broke his sacrum, which is why it sticks up in that one spot. She said that happens most commonly when they rear and flip over. Thinking about that happening to Diablo is sad, since he is so complacent, but when I broke him on our 10th ride he gave a good hi ho trigger rear, which I think to this day still was the best and most dramatic rear I've ridden through, so I can't put it past him to have tried that again at some point. Just putting pieces together to figure what happened to him at the track. 
We talked about some stretches I can do with him to ensure that his pelvis stays aligned and what sport work I should do to keep his muscles supporting his joints. I'm happy that his hunter's bump is reduced and his pelvis is aligned better now. He enjoyed it and is standing better than when I first got him.

Here's just some pictures of him standing and feeling a bit better afterwards. Planning to ride him tomorrow with some walking and trotting. Still gotta use the wintec with cair until the new half pad gets here for the cc saddle. I know some people and horses like the cair, and some don't. I personally like it and Diablo seems to too, haven't done much than walk him around in it so I'm sure it's not hurt him. Supposed to be a saddle my bf can use to ride him anyway and I've kinda taken it over I guess haha.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Wow, what a beautiful color. Can't see his head, does he have any markings there or is he solid?


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

whisperbaby22 said:


> Wow, what a beautiful color. Can't see his head, does he have any markings there or is he solid?


He doesn't have any markings on his head exactly...
He did hit his head and had to get stitches when he was a baby so he does have a clump of white hairs from that, kinda where a star would be, which I don't think will go away. 
He has a holy coronet band on his right rear. His brother are both maximum sabinos and are nearly totally white.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I went on a mini vacation to a friends house for a couple days, much needed!
Before I left I rode Diablo and after that chiropractic adjustment he was just amazing! I'm super excited to see him moving like he is now. He's got stuff in him I didn't know he had! I just had to keep him calm, since his body feels good, but his hoof is still hurting him a bit. It's that delicate balance of giving him what exercise he wants and needs without it leaving any negative impacts. 

On his birthday I walked him around and through the other barns on the property we hadn't visited yet. He was happy to do that. A lot less nervous than previously. Not that he was ever really nervous to begin with, but he was more curious this time. 

After our walk I put him in the turn out and he had a bit of fun galloping around for a few minutes then he was done!

I did manage to get hooked up with a tack locker at the barn too so that's super nice! Going out there to see them today and I have a new saddle half pad that I think he will like better.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Both horses were happy yesterday. Raining and stormy again here so I just brushed and fed them. Probably going to be the routine for the next few days. 

Diablo's hoof hole is growing down, and his whole hoof has grown nicely too. Hoping that in another couple weeks there will be enough sole under the hole that he can go out without an extra bootie on. 

I am also going to be running a schooling show or a few at the barn this year which is great! I'm hoping I can get Diablo jumping a bit so someone can ride him in crossrails at the show!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Well yesterday was a weird day. I got Diablo out tacked him up with a new pad, the same one I rode his brother in all the time. He seemed to like it, but he was really excited to get out! Maybe I shouldn't have free lunged him... but that was my choice. He was fine until he flung the bootie off his foot. That was his choice, then he kept galloping until a rock went right in the hole in his foot! 
I tried to clean it out and out the bootie back on, but i couldn't find the rock so I ended up riding him around a tiny bit walking mostly to cool him out. 

After I noticed he had some patches of hair falling out, like normal winter shedding, but there's no new hair underneath. He has some bald spots. He has a stable blanket, and there's some missing hair in normal areas for a blanket, but then he is also missing hair on his neck and face. I don't think he is rubbing it out through itching. I'm hoping he's not allergic to the shavings or hay. 

I gave him a bath, since really he hasn't had one for a while... and put him back. I know it's not fungal or parasite, there's no skin legions, just missing hair. 

As a baby he did get some weird crusty skin and hair loss under his chest, so I'm hoping it's that...

My plan right now is to watch it, and thinking of making some moisturizing spray to put on the areas with some oils and maybe acv and fly spray to see if I can get the hair to grow back, He's due to get wormed but our microscope isn't working so I'm going to just worm him without a count to see if that helps at all too. Otherwise I'm probably looking at some cortizone shots in a week from now if there's no changes. 

Hoping it's just some weird shedding thing and not something more serious.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Probably not, this time of year all kinds of weird skin issues.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Looking at it again today I think it's seasonal alopecia. 

When he moved up here he didn't have a lot of time to get a coat in for winter. My other horse turned wholly. 
Now that they are shedding one horse is still fluffy but Diablo is still out of wack with the seasons here. It's like he's trying to loose a full winter coat which he doesn't have!

Just sticking to the barn isles walking till the weather clears up! There's a covered arena but I'll want to lunge him first before riding him in there. Might be able to pull that off if I show up at an odd time. Trying to be more cautious with the hoof. 

I got to visit the chiropractor, I think Diablo will appreciate that. I'm sure my hip digging into him wasn't the best for either of us!


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

The horses around here sometimes pick up some fungi from the soil or sand when rolling that makes the hair fall out. One horse went nearly bald all over. It wasn't like rain rot, no scabs or anything, just baldness. If you're not sure, you could always do a bath with some medicated shampoo like Eqyss Micro Tek. That cleared it right up for this horse and she grew all her hair back. 

You can see the hair loss on the chestnut:









Her hair was so short you could see there was an underlying dappled pattern. That was just from the fungus making her hair fall out.
(The blue roan does have dapples too, hope that isn't confusing). Anyway, there were just patches of longer and shorter hair, no scabs or anything.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

The hair has stopped falling out and looks like it might even be growing back in in some places. 

I took Diablo out a couple times to walk and trot in hand in the arena with soft rubber footing. He did ok and enjoyed it. Today I put the saddle on him and did the same and he was rearing a bunch on me!

When I broke him he pulled a hi ho trigger rear on the 10th or so ride... Hope it doesn't become a trend, but I've also noticed that he doesn't seem to really like this saddle. He is fine in the wintec with cair, which is fine, but so many people look down on them. Either way I'm going to walk and trot him in hand with the wintec instead next time and see if that is what's causing the changes. 

Hoof boots were scheduled to arrive at the end of this week, but now they are being delayed till the end of next week... 

Either way I'll just do more hand walking and trotting this coming week, then hopefully those boots will get here, and will fit. Then I can actually start lunging him to get that energy out, and then start working him with the saddle. Hope we can get back to riding soon. He's a really good responsive listener under saddle so it's fun. Ground is fine too, but I need to stay in shape too!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Yea, most of the time at this time of year it's just something simple.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Hair is definitely growing back in now. He is still shedding under his belly, and on his legs in some areas. He is shedding all weird, but that's okay for now, old hair is falling out and new hair is coming in. Hopefully it's just an adjustment to being in different location than before, and not the beginning of something more serious for him in his life. I've been putting coconut oil and tea tree oil on the bald areas to keep it hydrated and fresh, but they are only bald for a week or so before hair starts to grow in. He's been getting vitamins so hopefully this coat will be a lot better than the one before. 

Hoof has grown out even more to the point where the sole is starting to fill in behind the hole. I'm a little worried that in around 6 months or so he might have another bad abscessing. When I got him he had a dent in his hoof wall, that dent finally grew all the way down and got trimmed off over the past month. Now were at the end of that bad section of hoof, and moving forward to post injury hoof. The post injury hoof is good, but it's not great. All the hoof growing in since he's been with me looks pretty good, it's just over half his hoof growth. When I got him the toe was pushed forward, so it got beveled back without making him sore, and the heels came up under him a little more instead of being crushed. The angle changed as a result of all of that, so there's another dent like thing growing down his hoof. I hope when that post injury wall grows down and comes off it's not as problematic for him as this has been. 

Then there's the soles, which overall look pretty good. They are calloused and dished to some degree. Better definition than before. He has the solar abscess growing down on one hoof, and a few other artifacts here and there on the other front one. I use low level peroxide on cotton to wash the hole out then stuff a small cotton ball with a dab of betadine on it. It stays in for 1-2 days. 

The frogs are starting to peel off, which is stinky. I realize a frog shouldn't be stinky, but the abscesses had brewed under there and they seeped out through the frogs, back by where they meet the heel. Hopefully that old frog peels off and the new stuff isn't too tender and callouses up nice over the next few months. 

The hoof boots arrived and fit! They stayed on as well. I have been hand walking and trotting in hand and on the lead with him. We were staying to the barn isles, then the driveway, then finally the covered arena with nice soft footing. Today with the boots I dared to put him out in the stone footing. He was totally fine and gave a great gallop around before he tired himself out from screaming and then we walked around the property to cool off. 
The boots are fantastic! They didn't come off through galloping and bucking, so the only other question will be to find out if he can jump in them. Then he can wear them as needed for working in the future. 

I'm hoping to let him out for a few days then put him out in some of the pastures, then eventually he can go out with the other geldings. I also want to get him working with these boots. Might throw the saddle on him and walk and trot around to get a baseline for what we can do with these boots. Hope he calms down and pokes around so I can go in the covered and start doing some real wtc work stuff.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Ok, so I've gotten out to ride a few times now since the boots arrived last weekend. 

After the boots got here and he went out galloping he was really calm so I just did a quick wtc test to see where he's at. Some stiffness through the shoulders, hip, and back. Boy friend got on and walked him around for fun. 

I think that on that saturday, the first day with the boots, he bucked and threw his hip out. He won't left lead canter, and has some tender and soreness in the hip on both sides. He did this after the chiropractor came and I let him out too, bucked and out went the hip... It did go back on it's own with stretching and light exercises.

The other thing is that when he got adjusted I heard his hip popping while she adjusted it. I think there's some scar tissue and damage in his hips that's aiding the problem. It's not a huge deal, I think he will work out of it, especially if I start doing some hills and cavaletti. I don't think his adjustments will hold without me getting him some strength first. He's got it in his topline a bit better, but his rump needs it more now. 

That aside, I've taken him out riding 3 times to see what I have. 

I took him out once when a horse in the arena over bucked their rider off and galloped around and Diablo just watched and worked. He was a little concerned, but so was I. Nothing noteworthy though. Walking and trotting was fine, cantering was fine on the right, but again no left. I trotted him in and out a half cross rail twice, which he hoped over like a real jump. 

Next time we went in the covered arena were there were 2 or 3 other people. They also store hay in there so there was a bit of hay moving going on too. He got startled a few times, but for him that's a sudden stop and neck jerk up, and that's it for his spook. Did a lot of walking and trotting. I did some circles and serpentine and sitting trot. He slows really well within his gaits and maintains them without constant or even intermittent asking. He was still stiff but I can feel more now where he is being stiff. Circling to the right he throws his left shoulder and hip out, circling to the right he is okay. Started going on the bit on his own with the kimberwick. The rein is on the top slot, so it's more of the chain action for slowing than the leverage, though there is a very mild amount of leverage there. 

Next time I took him out there were 5-6 people in the covered arena and the olympic dressage lady had her court set up and was schooling horses and all her crew were out schooling too, so it was a bit too much juggling them and the other people just riding for leisure. Diablo did ok, but he was telling me it was a lot for him. He was shaking his head a bit by the gate and hay area, and when other horses got too close. He also got a little upset when someone came cantering up behind him, which will need to be addressed in the future. I just did walking and trotting and did leg yields on and off the rail since there wasn't much space for anything more. 

After that he went out on pasture and just decided to play and stand by the gate rather than eat. He was on pasture before and didn't eat much grass and looked kinda thin but okay. We are trying to put him out on pasture again, now that his feet are doing better, and it's a bit of an affordability thing. At this facility though, if something's not right they can accommodate us, unlike the other barn where Dodge still is. Anyway, we want him to eat grass before he goes out, and he isn't doing that in the small paddocks, so I will likely have to hand graze him, or something else, cause I don't really have time to hand graze him for 4 hours a day after work...

Been giving him some massages and stretching him out which is improving the hip, and riding isn't hurting so were doing that. I want to let him out to turn out but I'm a bit worried that his bucking will undo the stretching, massaging, and targeted exercising. Right now when he's bucking its only with one leg out because of the hip thing. I think I will just focus on the balance between mental and physical health for him. 

Lastly the plan I had originally hoped to follow will be adjusted a bit since there's so many people using the arenas all the time, I can't really train him how I imagined. I'd need an arena to myself to have focused and carefree training. Not gonna happen, but not bad either. Last time I rode him he was going down and on the bit too much. Great he wants to go on it on his own, but he's not flexing quite right so might need to back to the drawing board to look at bits and lateral softening, rather than vertical softening and stopping. 

I have some pics I will try to post here too.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I will try to put these in order, 
Late August right before loading to ship up here.
Late September after 1 month with me at old barn.
Late October, still at old barn 2 months in.
November, other side, don't have any from other side...
None from December, I have pics from January, but bf is riding so I won't post. 
February at the new barn, a couple weeks in and after being adjusted.
March pics taken a few days ago.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Oops, looks like march pics didn't make it in the last post, here they are!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

He does look good.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Oh wow, he is looking really nice now. All that TLC is adding up.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Thank you both! Yes, been working on all sorts of things with him to increase his health. I think I learned a bit from Dodge, who had a ton of problems when I got him, that I can address more than one issue at a time, rather than solving the worst thing, then the next worst... So Diablo got hoof care, body work, and nutritional needs all met around the same time rather than one at a time. 

Today I rode Diablo in our little gravel arena. He was a bit of a turd when I got him out from his stall. I checked his feet and he kept yanking them away from me. I lost it on him once which is a little embarrassing but after I wacked him he stopped so just made me look stupid and not him.

I free lunged him and he gave both leads so I figured it would be ok to push him to get the left lead under saddle. 

I did a lot of walking trotting stuff to get him loose first, and some backing, turn on haunches, and lateral movement type stuff. He was good and got better at it. He did give the left lead, but only once. Still good enough for me, and as he went it got better. He only made it for a few laps, then I took him over a pole and he broke and I couldn't get it again. 

I'm pretty sure he has a rib out or cracked rib or something, its not in his back, it's only on one side and it's not in his stifle or hip area either. It's just in front of his hip area where the last ribs are. I poked around and found a general sore area so I put some liniment on it and he really liked that. 

I think it's possible he bucked it out of place, or got kicked by one of the horses he's been going out with. Still, it was better after riding so I'm going to keep at it this week. 

I think this week or soon he will be out in pasture again full time, but this pasture is different from the past, and if it isn't working out he can come back in a stall. Hope all goes well and he's fine out there and stays healthy.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

He was less sore today, but still not wanting to canter left, and was a little angry about going right. I think he is still sore, but not as ouchy sore as before. I still think it's that last rib and how it interacts with where his hip sticks out there. May be some other micro tears of muscle, tendon, or anything really. 

Since he seems ok going right I trotted him over some poles going right then cantered him over them, little 3 pole course. It's like he was born knowing what to do. He was a little weird about some crows, so we stopped to look and chase them away. I took him in 2 arenas. He's really got the concepts of turning with body carriage and change of bend. It's not totally even, but he's not feeling good on that left side still, so I don't expect evenness from him. I will fine tune it later. 

We're working on turn on the haunches and then we will do some turn on the forehand stuff. He isn't good at backing at all either, so we have that to practice. Looking back at what I wanted to work on him with, he's got the basic transition from working trot to sitting trot, and I haven't worked on lengthening too much yet. We have done more poles than planned. I still think were on track. He gives a good basic steady canter and he has rhythmic breathing which is always a plus in my book, especially for people who want to learn to ride, since they can hear his breath on each step. 

He's gotten way more supple and can bend now, and he will offer to go on the bit, which is nice, we just want a little more control first before I start asking him to work on the bit more. Sometimes I ride him with a floating hand, and other times I keep my hand more still. 

He was out in the little paddocks after the ride, then bo suggested I put him out in the big pasture. I did and he galloped back and fourth once then settled down next to the other horses that were out there. He got a little cut on his leg, but it's alright. 

Hoping that after this next storm comes through we can put the gelding herd out there and they can live out 24/7.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I think I will see if I can bring my gopro down to film a session, or maybe I can get another cell phone mount and film on that so I can share it.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Not much progress on getting photos or video. I took my bf with me and my phone kept dying anytime it was asked to take a photo or record. Might have gotten 1 picture of me walking around. 
He got back on Diablo on Wednesday and walked him around a bit. He was still pretty sure on Wednesday in that spine rib hip area. 

The walking alternating rest seems to be working out well for him with that healing. He is still on the up. I rode him yesterday and he seemed much more flexible and loose, didn't have to drill circle, fig 8s, and serpentine a bunch, just did a few and he was loose and ready. 

He does lean in a little bit going right so I really need to keep my hand up about an inch higher on that side and relax my leg longer. I've been working him on lateral movements a little hoping he will put the two together and he will stop leaning in to the right. He even leans a little right going left, but it's not as bad. It just means more outside rein to support him and if I over bend going left his hind end whips out from under him a little. Very subtle changes, I don't think most people would notice, but with the balance I've always had I can feel it! Also I see it in how his feet wear, they wear slightly more on the left side of the hoof, on the front hooves only. The backs have more normal wear. 

After getting him loose and thinking about how to use his body I did some pre-half pass training stuff, just yielding of the leg at a walk and trot and laying the foundation for the cue. He gets it right away the first or 2nd time I ask, and I never really have to train the movements on him like on other horses, he just gets it. Sometimes I wonder how he was born knowing. 

I wanted to canter left first, but he was a little stiff, so I went right really quick for a lap or two, then went left and he gave a little grumble and put his ears back but went into it. I let him get nice and loose going left. It didn't take long for him to get warmed up, and it felt better than last time. Also when I change diagonals at a trot there's less of a difference between directions. After that we went right a little bit more just to make sure we knew the difference still. It will just take a bit more time for him. 

I'm glad he is feeling well enough that I'm not fighting him to get soft or to give the correct canter lead, he can do it a little more willingly now. Hoping it just gets better then I will do a little schooling on canter transitions... without giving a grouchy ears back face >:/ I know he can do it happily. Still not sitting down hard on him at a canter much, just doing a half seat to establish that flow before I start reeling it in. 

Hoping to go back into doing poles in a little bit too. He is ready and is careful about trotting poles, and cantering them too, just want to test him a bit with some poorly placed poles to see how well he can navigate a disaster and then have him start jumping some little fences and courses. 

I worked on Dodge a bit too. He got his feet trimmed and totally loved it, he thought he was at the spa or something. I guess he liked how I was handling his feet or something. I also gave him a wnv shot and a wormer. The next day he was a little dumpy but wasn't sad. I am interested in finding out if there's some sort of glue on shoe thing I can put on Dodge. He has high low and his run forward hoof is hurting him and I think I could do a little more to help it if I get creative. He has a pretty good cleft still in his heel, so I'm almost wondering if there's some way I can make a heel spreader using a little piece of rubber sorta " ^ " shaped that would pushed up into the cleft and push his heels further apart. If I nailed or glued on a rubber or silicone pad then I might be able to test some stuff to see what happens. Right now I've got a piece of cotton lodged in the cleft and I try to keep it clean, but it's almost spread enough that the cotton won't stay in, but not open enough that it gets circulation or be in good form to continue opening on it's own. That said he's 9 now, and I've only been working to fix this for a year when he's had this issue for many years. I still think its worth trying some stuff to see if I can do something more to help him. Otherwise he's been pretty good.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diablo is out in the pasture with the other geldings now! He seemed really happy out there. I will need to make sure he gets exercise and not too fat. He walked up to me in the pasture, but not up to the gate, he will figure it out soon. 

His hoof is starting to bust off some sole near the toe callus out to the white line. I could fit the pick well underneath but he likes it best if it falls off naturally, and he's not had much of an ordeal with thrush other than when I first got him in September. That and I'm sure what's underneath is tender still. That's also the area that abscessed, now falling off in the toe area. The areas where he had abscesses in the frogs and heels are nearly grown out. He still has a few bits of his frogs that are peeling off.

Besides his feet being better he seems to be doing better with going left. He went left almost normally today and I'm sure walking around looking for the water in the pasture will help. Maybe the other boys will show him where the water is...

Anyway I did the super mega quick hack of 2 trot laps and 2 canter laps each way. He was warm from pasture and walking back and fourth for riding and tacking. I trotted him over some poles and walked over some cavaleti. I didn't think of the huge X much different even though the middle was a good 2' instead of poles or cavaleti, so we walked over that. I like to do a half seat 2 point type thing to get off their back so they can make decisions about how to handle obstacles and I get out of the way. Diablo decided to jump it, which is cool with me, seems like he might enjoy jumping! For our canter laps I started going right then figured I'd check to see where he's at as far as lead changing, I went across the diagonal, shifted my body, and he changed. It's going to be easy to get auto changes from him which is just another great plus for him!

It might be safe to say that my title of "teaching Diablo to jump" is a bit obsolete now since it seems he is willing to carry himself over jumps naturally and willingly. He still needs to learn some other stuff. All the pieces are there, just gotta put it together now.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

The old geldings are turning my sweet baby horse into a teenager horse a little bit. They were totally trolling him today. 

I got him out, and he was a little stop and go leaving the pasture. I got to the cross ties and there was only one spot, so we squeezed in between a semi retired old guy and a lesson paint girl. 

Fast forward to me riding around and 2 of the geldings he was out with start galloping along the pasture and over towards where we were in the arena. I just feel like those situations can go either way, the horse doesn't blink an eye, they freak out, maybe just need some encouragement through it. 

He started great then just did ok with his buds galloping around next to him teasing him, he was a little wiggly but still walking, just not as calmly as I wanted. I opted to get off since I was trying a new saddle on him today. He really didn't like the crosby, but seems to like the barnsby. The saddle is weird to ride in and puts me in a chair seat so I'm pulling my legs back every step. The combo just made me want to take some risk factor out so I got off, we walked around, waited for the lesson to end, then did a little free ground work to get him more focused on me. I also grabbed a crop which I don't need to use but is an ok reminder just to have. 

After that we did some circling, turn on haunches, forehand, walked some half passes across, sitting trotted some, little posting and 2 point stuff, constantly changing it up. He was focused working, as I expected, so we mixed in work with relaxed walking while the boys still ran around playing next to us. Diablo started sitting back a lot, it was kinda freaky, I've only ridden a few horses where you set them up and they feel like they are walking up stairs. It will be interesting to see what kinds of movements he can do as we move on. 

Soreness nearly gone, but heels are sore now. He went marching up and down the hilly parts in pasture so I probably have to throw the bell boots on him so he doesn't hurt himself having fun out there. 

Plans are to ride this weekend and go do some cantering, poles, jump a little stuff, and hopefully along the way get him into a more collected canter where he rounds up so I can sit on his back instead of doing a half seat sorta thingy. I'll see how he feels before I test out that flying change again, but will probably school canter transitions.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Planning to go out to ride today after work. 

I was able to get a video of me riding on Sunday, so I will work on uploading that, but it might be a few days. 

One thing I've already noticed, which is good/bad is that Diablo paddles his right front. This really explains why he feels like he is leaning right going both left and right! I could also see his back end still slightly out, but not to bad. He is also a tiny bit foot sore from walking up and down the hill in pasture. He followed his buddy up there and later that day he had bruised heels. He hasn't gone up there again so I'm on the fence about the bell boots. It's getting better, he's just not pounding the ground, he's a little daintier when he's going. 

Overall I think the video I got captured some good stuff to analyze what's going on with the two of us. It definitely wasn't a great ride, I warmed him up a little quicker, he was a little less flexible, he gave the right lead a bunch until he finally gave me the left lead. I changed saddles riding him, and this one I'm using is slippery and puts me in a chair seat. It just kinda emphasizes my right side weakness. Since I'm not super secure in that saddle I get bounced around a couple times, and I'm not really able to sit and get the contact I want. That's all good though, shows what I can work on. 

On another note, I can see the bottom of the cleft on Dodge's hoof! It's been a year and 5 months since I got him. When I got him I could stick the whole hoof pick in and when cleaning it I would get blood. The farrier I used and I worked to get his feet in better condition and we addressed the cleft slightly but not extremely. It was basically just full of tags all folded up in it's self so there were tons of spaces for stuff to hide. It was a game of chess for what to trim and what to leave. Then we moved and it got really wet. Just another fight to keep them clean. The old frog finally grew out around a year after I had him, so it was mostly smooth, no tags, but was little, stretched, and still clefty. I would keep cotton in it to help keep meds in and keep it dry. It started drying out and the cotton won't stay in as well, so I started packing it in differently. I can now only fit 1 jumbo cotton ball in instead of 2! The cleft has opened so it's not touching it's self and I can actually see the bottom of it, and it looks pretty darn healthy down there! I'm hoping in the next 6 months that bottom of the cleft grows down and the frog restores to more normal. I think it could be another year or more before the hoof looks good. He really needs it to help that leg, he still gets some knuckling over now and then and I can tell his leg has been messed up for a few years because no one's tried to fix it. I'm sure his foot is going through changes inside too, we want it in a way where his foot can support him better. I know feet need time to grow out but they also need time to change shape, and anything left from his previous is gone, but has still left it's impact on what remains.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Alright,
Here's some videos of us. Like I'd mentioned previously this ride was not great, we didn't spend a lot of time fully warming up, he was still a tiny bit sore on that hind and had sore heels in front from clipping out in the pasture, and we used the new old saddle which puts me in a chair seat combo with a pad I've only used 3 times so it's still really fluffy and hasn't molded yet so the saddle shifts a little from side to side. One more excuse, I needed to be riding in half chaps, so my leg is just... sad. I rode with half chaps after and there was a difference. I ordered different irons and leathers but they haven't arrived yet I'm sure biothane on slippery leather is one of the worst combos I could get away with for now. With that I think I'm still mentally prepared for some commentary on how were doing from those who have been following the saga. 

walking: 



trotting: 



cantering: 





Last time I rode him was too long ago, 4 days ago, but I had to get laundry done, and we had open house so I had to pass on riding for a few days because of that. Last time I rode him we did a lot of sitting trot stuff and I got him moving and responsive. We cantered a tiny bit at the end, and he gave up that left lead on the 2nd ask. I think once that soreness is completely gone he will know what to do, before the issues with his feet he picked up the correct lead 100% of the time. The heel soreness had gone away, but still very mild soreness in that hip area. We did some poles at trot and canter and worked on moving up with a leg cue, and waiting with a shoulder/seat cue. He did good. He only goofed one pole that I couldn't see a distance to at all so I don't blame him, we just had a bad approach to it. 

Yesterday I didn't ride I just walked and groomed him, we got a fly sheet put on, I ended up putting bell boots on his fronts to help his heels from him over reaching coming down hills, and just let him walk around the property. Today will be more of a riding day for both horses I hope. 

I think Diablo is at a point where he is sound and comfortable enough and I'm going to start cranking up the intensity on his rides. I can get the soft supple trot, we've been working on canter transitions a little so I'm ready to bump it up with him and really nail those canter transitions and start working on collection and extension at the canter. I need to be able to sit down on him at a canter at some point! I'll keep throwing in poles and that odd jump until we have some mastery at canter, then we will really start focusing on the jumping and I'll look for someone to lease him. 

I need to figure out the paperwork part. I need a contract to protect myself in case my property damages someone, to protect Diablo in case he gets hurt while someone else is riding him, and it would be good to get some form of liability insurance on him in case he damages other peoples property and also just general insurance on him in the event he damages himself. I need to figure the costs of the insurance so I can figure out how much it will cost to lease him out. 

There's a chance I'll have my bf along to help record today as well so we can see the difference.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Hey, you're a really good rider! No need to critique yourself too much, he's still working on his balance and you're having to adjust to that. You look quiet and strong. 
I think you're right, he's looking great and ready to add to his workload.
I personally wouldn't worry about sitting his canter until it becomes smoother and slower on its own, as he gets stronger through the back and hind end. I think he'll do it when he can.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Yeah, he needs more strength all over. He will balance up and as it is I will collect him a little around corners so he's not completely cutting them. I think I will have him walk some cavaletti tomorrow. 

Today we went and did some stuff with Dodge, brushed him a lot, cleaned up his stall, let him run around, rode him walking around a little, gave him a bath, and touched up his feet. It was windy, he was weird, but we found some cool rocks and walnut shells. 

Diablo was good. No one tried to take his fly sheet off and he still has the bell boots on, at least until his heels are better, probably in another day or two. Did some walking in the arena, then went right up to some cantering, just a few laps each way, walked to the other arena, trotted over a little 1' jump and walked around the ranch.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Yea, I think you are doing great with him, letting him go and at the same time keeping him together. He does look like he's ready for adjusting working up. The only comment I would add is that I always ride with a breast plate, especially if your saddle setup is wobbly. Yes if you get a big spook things will slip, but the breastplate will keep you in the saddle, it's saved me many a time.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I plan on using a standing martingale in the future. Will need it for hunter jumper shows so he will have to get used to wearing it for fashion even though none of those horses need it for it's function. 

The half pad will compact down after a few more rides and there won't be any shifting once it molds to the saddle, same one I had before and after about a month everything stayed in it's spot. He seems comfortable in the saddle, though I need to stop putting the girth through the keepers on the pad and I need to pull the pads off his withers. He got a white dot where his wither meets his mane D:. The only pressure that's there is from the square pad rubbing, or possibly from his winter blanket that didn't fit the best, but I think it's more likely the pad since he hasn't worn the blanket for a month now. He seems ok with the saddle but I'm cautious now since I've used it 3 times and it was the day after one of those rides that it showed up... I'll have to keep an eye on it, make sure I pull the pads up to give wither relief with the square pad, else what's the point in having a special wither relief half pad for him...

I am fortunate in that his worst spook is him becoming alert and taking 1 or 2 steps to the side, he is really level headed, makes good choices, is aware, I think he will be a good deal for some kid who wants to learn, he is honest but also puts up with stuff. He also has a pretty good wither so I think it would be hard for the saddle to slip to the point of no return, though I don't doubt it's possible.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Heat wave came through today so all the horses were sweaty from just standing around eating. I took advantage of it and took Diablo for a walk around the property undersaddle. I knew he would be good but going slow with those things is fine with me. We walked past his pasture mates and he neighed once but just walked past and they were too tired to follow. 

We went in one of the larger arena and did some work at the trot. He got flexible and I tried doing a longer half pass at the walk and trot. He's getting it, but it's not perfect. Still improved from where we left off last time on that. 

Afterward I took him into the arena with the jumps so I could canter in there. I went right first and we cantered over a pole a few times. When he sees a ground pole he canters over it, but when there's standards he tries to jump the pole. He gave a good 1' jump over the ground pole. He was a little unsteady, looking for an out instead of going right over the fence. He's done that once or twice before, I think some days he just isn't in the mood to jump, other days he targets right into the middle and goes up to the jump. 

We went left after that and it took a couple times to get the left lead but we got it and went on. Some moments of a really nice canter, and others of falling apart, and some moments half with it and half not. His front isn't always communicating with his back end going left. Maybe too much racing going left, maybe needs an adjustment, maybe both. I took him over the pole but he swapped to the right lead. I don't blame him, it didn't feel comfortable to me the whole time either!

After that I tried him through a gymnastic that was set up. 3 trot poles to an x with a 1 stride to a cavaleti. The first time I walked it, the second time he trotted and jumped it perfectly, but stupid me wanted to try it again and let him crash through the cavaleti. Duh he was already telling me he felt wobbly and didn't want to jump today. So I stopped there, but I don't think Diablo is the type of horse where it needs to end of a good note, and I don't really mind either, since we made progress in other areas. 

Still after I thought, why not ask for the left lead again? The next time I tried it I got it the 2nd or 3rd time, so he knows what to do, it just needs to feel better for him. I think I will take advantage of this and do a left lead flying change to right lead just to see what it's like for him. Maybe it will help him understand where his feet should go. Walking, trotting, cantering, he's not in pain but something is still off a little bit and it's been 6 weeks since it started so I think a cracked rib would be healed by now. I think I will do some canter work on the lunge line before riding him next time to see what's going on, maybe do some stretches, then call the chiro if things don't start feeling better.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Things are changing a bit from the beginning. 

Diablo has been out on the pasture for a couple weeks. He is urinating A LOT more than before. Some in part because of the extra water in the grass, but I think he is also trying to get excess sugar out of his system. I need to talk with the lady who owns and runs the ranch and find out what we can do. 2 horse were already pulled from the pasture because they couldn't handle it. I certainly don't want to tread into the founder/ir/laminitis/metabolic realm with Diablo. My boyfriend is scheduled to do some general labor at the ranch starting next week, so I will also see if he can nudge in some say about this... Right now I'm thinking it might be good to put a grazing muzzle on during the day and let him graze at night. The better part of it is that I get to the barn after work, right after the hottest part of the day to ride, so he is off the pasture between 4-6 when it's at the highest sugar content. Still, it's only 3 days a week or so that I'm making it there. 

The good news is that with some help we've done our first legitimate jumping session. I had an offer from one of the trainers to help us out with jumping a bit, so we took that offer up yesterday. In the past I've thrown him at stuff just to see what he does. Typically I would do ground poles, build up to more poles, then some x's, etc. Instead I lunged him with the tack on, then walked down to the jump arena, and started jumping immediately. This way I could get another perspective on what I'm actually working with on him. 

First I took him through 4 ground poles then a few strides to another ground pole. He was wobbly, but I also wanted to give him space to try it out, no support, in a 2 point with no leg, loose reins, just to see what he could figure out on his own. He tried and got wobbly. My friend who was helping out suggested I give him more support, so we did that and after a few more times he was building confidence and wasn't wobbling around anymore. I started to actually ride him through it (I know I can _make _him do it, but I also want him to figure it out, so from my perspective we need some guidance, and some independence, not just all forceful) it helped him out a lot and he started putting in more effort and form. We changed that last pole to a crossrail then a vertical, about a foot high. Interesting he landed on both the right and left leads, so I think that left lead issue is nearly gone, that and when I lunged him we did left lead canter to trot positions until he did it without rushing through it. After that a few times we added another crossrail on the other end of the arena, just trotting it. He needed some direction and he still doesn't always hold that right front up all the time. He did well though. We did that a few times. My helper felt like he wasn't using his hind end well enough and sitting back so we did some stuff where we jumped it, halted, turned on the haunch, then jumped it again. His form got better within 2 or 3 jumps. We up'd it to a little 2' vertical and he jumped it really round, not sure how his knees were, but I was pleased that he was using his body over the fences. 

Overall it was great. We talked about leasing Diablo out for lessons, and what I need to do to make that happen. She thinks her kids can handle him as is, so I need to figure out the liability and insurance parts. We had it on my previous horse before he got too old, and it wasn't too expensive. Diablo is worth less so it should be really affordable. I do need to figure out what he is worth so I can get him insured for the correct amount. Today he's worth close to the 5k mark, but in a few months and after a couple shows I'll be thinking closer to 10k. Beyond that I guess we will see where his athleticism and talent takes him. He has the mind and could easily be a great jumper, his movement is just ok as far as hunter under saddle stuff goes, I can make it better, but I don't think I can make him into a 50k mover. 

Hoping things continue well in training and that the hiccups with the grazing get resolved soon too.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

It's been about a week but I finally made it there between commitments and illness. 

Got a day off work to catch up on stuff. Diablo needs rides and needs insurance. Should get both figured out tomorrow. I think by next week we will have a kid on him in lessons. 

Pulled 10 ticks off Diablo, pretty sure we found most of them. Will look for more tomorrow. I think I'll order some spot treatment tonight and start putting that on him. 

A crow got stuck in a water trough, bf helped that guy out and he flew outta there after he dried off. Hope the bird wasn't sick. 

Tomorrow Dodge is up first, then Diablo, hope it helps me recover a bit too being out there.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Made it on to ride today. He got a few more new pasture mates, and got a scrape on his eye. Nothing that can be stitched... Thankfully I had a fly mask with me, but I think I will need to get a few more before the summer is over. 

I lunged him first, which was good, then went down to the jump arena. There were some cows next door that were on the move which he was interested in. We did some hacking, then used a small cross rail to help get that left lead canter. After a few times doing that he started to get the idea and picked it up without the poles/cross rail. It's a nice canter, more balanced than when he was sore, still a little running now and then so were working on collecting through the corners and getting calm transitions down to the trot afterwards. Now I just need to hone in the right lead left lead stuff a bit more while working on simple lead changes and jumping. I think in a couple weeks I can get him doing flying changes and into summer get them as semi automatic changes. 

I got the insurance stuff so I just need to fill that out and send it back in. 

He needs his feet done soonish. They need to be trimmed, but he's also doing well having a little bit more material on the sole with him being out in the pasture. I may just dress the wall/bars to keep flaring and impaction down. I'll keep thinking that over before I do anything. 

Diablo was good for me despite me being so ill/slow/foggy. Decided to take the other day off work to recover, my brain is so foggy I keep forgetting things throughout the day I don't think it's a good idea to trust me in a classroom with 7 year olds right now, 5yo ottb, sure, human children, can't quite get there right now...


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Seems it shouldn't be this way, but I like going to the barn later in the day than earlier. I checked on Diablo first. Scrape looking good, but he took a chunk out for sure, if it was there it might have been possible to fix it, but for him he can live and learn. He's out in a pasture with 8 other horses so there's bound to be something going on all the time out there. 

He settled down in the crossties a little slower than normal with the new new horses distracting him. I put the Freedom spot treatment on his legs to test it out before I fully apply it, he seemed like it burned a bit, but I've never used this type of product on a horse before. He can take a summer of poison to save him from disease. 

I thought a flat day would be good, so we went in the little gravel arena and did a lot of bending, and only sitting trot work, then worked on canter transitions. It seems like he's not sure what it's supposed to feel like to get the left lead, he does this weird thing where he knows it's wrong and semi crow hops if I let him. I started pushing him forward through the transition and made it uncomfortable for him, then tried a different technique rather than asking along the rail or in a circle. 

I asked for the right lead, then cut across the arena, and asked for a trot 1-2 steps before hitting the rail, change directions to the left and ask for a canter. Worked every time I tried it, so that's what we will do while he figures out what it should feel like. 

I started riding him into the canter a bit more. He needs more laps with me letting him stretch out and down, but also starting to support him in his body use so that he isn't leaning. I rode him in a frame for nearly the entire canter time, except at the end where I let him stretch out. I think this will be the hardest thing with him. I need to be super deliberate in delivering the message to him so he 'gets it' and does it on his own cause it's easier that way. I don't like him leaning against my hands. He needs to figure out how to canter in a frame without leaning, but I can also support him in that by really backing him off my hand in walk and trot work. I need that feeling of going up stairs I got from him, but I need that at a canter now. We will get there. He was like this as a baby when I broke him, he figured out how to balance at a canter after a few rides. 

A horse at the barn where Dodge is has pigeon fever, in fact- it's the horse right next to Dodge. I don't need that in my life. Dodge had Habronemiasis summer sore when I got him, so I'm done with the vectors and their diseases. I put some freedom on Dodge, and also used some argan oil in his hair. It was starting to get dry and hard and he already has ultra coarse hair. He looks nicer. He also said the Freedom didn't feel great and rolled him lip after I applied it. Dodge is still shedding, but I think that's normal for him. He is looking good. One hoof is really spreading on it's own now and the other isn't closing up and may be spreading slowly. 

Here's some pics of both of them.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Uhg. Pidgeon fever is nasty. Hope it passes soon.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Yeah, I don't have the time to be giving antibiotics 2x a day right now, I would have to wake up early and do a lot of driving to make it work, hopefully he just stays healthy. I don't trust the people who own the place to administer medication unfortunately. The only other barn I could afford to move to he would have to be on pasture, and he will get too fat and have issues. 

There was another horse at the barn where he's at who had it for a few months earlier this year. I guess she gets it every year for some reason. The thing that irks me is that I can't see what's being done to prevent it from spreading. 

If my horse were to get ill it wouldn't be something that I did or didn't do to cause it, I feel the property owner should be doing more but they are pretty lazy I have been learning. Just glad I am not planning to live in this area permanently and that this is a temporary situation for the next year. I don't want to pay vet bills for something that I don't consider my problem. 

Both the horses got all their Freedom 45 and seem to be doing well on it after a little stinging from it being applied. 

I need to start getting Dodge out more, he was pretty good last summer but I didn't keep it up with him over the wet winter so we have some catching up to do.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Yesterday I decided to lunge both horses instead of ride. Diablo was good, but he doesn't pay attention as well as Dodge does. Diablo clearly doesn't know how to walk at a free lunge, so we will need to work on that, as well as halting. I did have him cut across the pen at a canter and he gave flying changes so that's cool. 
Trotting I noticed he drags his left hind just a tiny bit, a difference of 2 inches from the other hoof. I did a belly tuck with him, then it went away until he tripped. I think I will bring some poles into the round pen to set up cavaleti in there and strengthen those muscles so he can lift it better. 

Dodge was good, no illness and there's almost no flies around there. His hooves are looking good too. 

Planing to ride Diablo today, hopefully better than ever.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diablo started off a little iffy coming out of the pasture, stalling out a lot so he could hang out with his buddies. Another new horse out there, up to 8 now. 

His eye still looking ok, it's trying to heal up, and the fly mask is working well. It's one of the design ones off schneiders and it has a donkey face... it was only $7 when I bought the fly sheet so... I couldn't be happier! The humans are having a harder time with the eyes then the horses. 

Tacked up and headed down to the jumping arena. Did some trotting in there and he was good with good natural carriage around about 50% of the corners at the trot. A few times he was paddling, looking for a short cut, leaning through the corners, so I offered him a little support. Cantering was really pretty good, he physically tried and tried to know what he was doing with the whole left lead right lead thing. Got the left lead on the 2nd try, and about 90% of the times I asked for it after that. 

I cantered a ground pole between standards and he hopped it like it was a 2' jump rather than just a pole...
We trotted it and he calmed down a little, then we trotted and cantered some cross rails. He started off a little unsure ducking left or right a little but he got there, went over them all, and got straighter as we went on. 

The best part was cantering the 3 fences, a single, and diagonal single, and an outside line with only one fence and a ground pole as the exit of the line. The first time I did it he kept the right lead, which made it easy to get to the other single, and then he landed on the left lead for the other outside line, and cantered it just right in 4 steps to the pole. Wow, so good! So of course I go for it again. In the past I've tried to be opportunistic and it goes wrong, but not today! We cantered the little course 2 more times, and got flying changes both times wen we didn't land on the leads. 

After that he was bearing against my hand a little bit, so I did some work trotting crossrails, then halting after, turning around, and trotting them back. I trotted and halted after the diagonal and the outside line. He started calming down and not jumping so dramatically after a few hops over it with a trot and halt, so we stopped there. 

In the crossties when I was taking the saddle off, he kicked out at me and tapped my leg. Of course I went berserk on him, no he can't do that and the saddle fell off him and I walloped him with the girth, the thing I was holding in my hand. After that when he tried to veer to the side in the crossties I just looked at his *** and he moved it back. He is smart, I won't have to hit him for a long time now. I don't like it, but getting kicked is worse. 

I met a girl who trims hooves so I want to connect with her about looking at Diablo's feet to get an opinion. Ther are long all over but I want to leave some off so he is comfortable on the pasture, but not so long that they distort. 

Overall great progress with the schooling part. I think with Diablo doing this stuff now I can go back and refine some stuff. He's great at a walk, trot, but was starting to bare down at a trot and a lot more at a canter. I think I need to take him in the big arena and gallop a few laps on him to get him up above my hand, then try him in a snaffle over the kimberwick for a little while. Or move the kimberwick a little lower in his mouth so it's looser. I'll keep thinking that over. 

I am planning to be out there through the weekend so there will be more posts.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Checked Dodge today and took him out in the pen. Were working on maintaining a specific gate until asked to change it. He is so responsive to vocal and body cues for halt and all 3 gates as well as reversing. I just move my feet 1 or 2 steps and talk to him and he does it all really well. He just doesn't prefer to canter constantly...

I started working on his hooves today, his bars are growing out, and those need to come out or else his heels start contracting, so every 3 weeks or so I knife them out. His back hooves have a lot of sole that needs to come out, and I trimmed up the frogs. He has some thrush in the back hooves from his sole growing down and his frog flattening out so there's no grooves after a while, it's all just flat across the bottom. I need to take more sole out on the back hooves still and sculpt it so that it will let the manure fall out instead of get trapped in there. 

I think I will work him with the saddle tomorrow and walk around on him a bit. He's been good lately so I think it's time to start riding him again.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diablo sees me coming and wants to get away. I might have to give him more treats when he's with me rather than just make him work work work all the time. 

He was good none the less. I worked on his feet, which was easy, and then tacked up. I borrowed Dodge's new bit which is the full cheek french link with copper roller. Diablo liked it, and wasn't bearing down as much. I did some walk and trot exercises with him to get him regulating his speed better. After that he got tired, but was still a little antsy. I amped up my expectations so he was a little upset when his trying wasn't quite good enough for today. He did a little pawing to show he did not approve. 

We had a kid try him, just walking and trotting. It's a good fit. She will do a real lesson on him on Tuesday. 

There is a show next weekend down the street we may go to, it would cost a little bit more than I like, but it will be a good experience for Diablo, especially if I can enter him in just walk trot and poles or crossrails. I just don't.. want.. to.. be... competing against a bunch of 10-15 year olds... so gotta figure that part out, maybe I skip the equitation and just enter the HUS ones, which I know Diablo will just be middle of the bunch in anyway in under saddle. 

Oh and before that I saw Dodge and put a running braid in, I've never done one but it turned out pretty good, I'll post a picture later.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Here's my first attempt at braiding a mane.

I also think that I am getting more fit for riding, my leg felt a lot more supportive today than earlier this year.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Nice job on the braid!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

That is nice. I've in the past made mine to snug and it gets all mussed up.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I want to try one like that against the neck for Diablo, he has long silky hair, but some parts are wavy so it might hold okay. I need a stool too. 

I decided he's had enough of me nagging him, so we made it a day all about fun and treats. I hand walked him around to set the jumps. A tiny cross rail, a 2" diagonal, and the outside line I made into a 1'6" rail, and we still don't have enough poles to make it into a jump... so... it's a ground pole as the other part of the line. 

We worked on being calm. I've been amping up the pressure with canter leads, and he still doesn't get it, but starting to. 

I jumped the crossrail from a trot to try to get the canter then went whichever way after. He gave 50/50 left and right. We worked on trotting the small vertical, looking at it, them going up to it. He did good, less wobble. After we did the 2" off the right lead, he got really brave to it and started wanting to move up, I let him for a couple steps to commit then reeled him in and sat tall the last 2 steps to get there safely and slowly. I then did it from the other way, and Diablo is so smart... He knew we would be going left after the fence, so he does a flying change 2 strides out from the fence and changes to his left lead! Ideally it would be over the fence, or at the half way mark of the arena but he gets the idea which I love!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diablo's lesson cancelled on Tuesday. They may use him today. I'm not sure what the deal will be since we are experiencing some weather. I did take him out yesterday and walked him out for about 20 minutes undersaddle. He was good. I think I can see the value in working him slowly and calmly for a little while here while these storms come through, a step back to the basics. Hopefully there will be more people in the arena with the weather today, as he could use a little more experience with that. 

I didn't blanket him yesterday so he was naked for the storm. There will be more rain, so I need to decide if I should put his blanket on or not... This is why I need a rain sheet with no insulation so I can throw it on when we have spring showers. I just have his medium weight rain blanket right now, but when the sun comes through I think that's too hot. 

I think I will post some updates later today and some pictures I got of his face, he's been looking cute the past few days.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I figured out how this storm fit into my horse plans. It was so easy to take the retained sole out of Dodge's hooves today! Without his feet being moist I didn't have the strength even with sharp knives. Now I knocked out the dead sole, which I do maybe 2x a year with him thus far, but not every trim. I took out more than normal to take advantage of the moment. I still need to bring the walls equal with the sole. 

Trying to do a lesson tomorrow with Diablo, we'll see how it goes! I'm looking at getting him a show bridle, a girth with sheepskin, and maybe a set of eq boots too, not at the buying phase yet, just seeing what's out there these days.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Here's those face pics of Diablo. I see a baby face, but will it be for life?
I have some others with weird angles, not sure if I want to add that to the clutter...


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

He has _very_ sweet eyes. 

I also think it's great when there's a wet period and some of the retained sole comes right out of the hoof.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diabo was good today. I tacked up and rode in the covered arena. I did the ultra quick ride. I had him practice walk trot transitions for just a few laps, then I cantered right flying change to the left, did a lap and then flying changed back to the right. He was good, I just need that left lead from a walk and trot!

After that I cooled out and cruised the stone arena and did walk halt transitions. He got a little antsy having to stand still. 

After that a kid rode him, and did really well with him. Then I made it home and watched the preakness. I'm happy with how the race turned out. Tomorrow planning to ride Diablo and check on Dodge, but there are thunderstorms in the schedule too, so hopefully that doesn't get too bad.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Some weird stuff happened the past few days but no harm done. 

First off, I saw Dodge on Sunday evening. I tried to post about it here, but the post went poof. Basically we had a severe thunder storm Sunday morning. At the barn Dodge was pacing in his stall when I arrived. Then I noticed a lady on the other side of his stall talking to the horses. I think it was the property owner's wife. I'm not sure which of those caused Dodge to be so nervous. He calmed when I fed him, but I couldn't do anything much more for him. I hope no one is touching him or feeding him that's making him act up. I've even seen where my boyfriend was petting another horse and got zapped by the electric fence and Dodge freaked out the rest of the day after that. Some day I will have a quiet place for him where he can feel safe. 

Today Diablo was tired when I got him out, probably up all night from the rain and storms too. I'm thinking about requesting a night in the stall for him so he can sleep. He's been trying to lay down, and one of the times I let him he wanted to sleep, not get back up. 

Anyway, today he was sleepy and great in the cross ties, I don't think he even blinked. I decided to use an old headstall that I finally got a set of matching reins for. It's a burgundy latigo leather. I like the reins but they were too stiff, so I took them home and oiled them with olive oil, just like I'd done to the headstall. They match great and the reins have a nicer feel now. After a few coats of Horseman's One Step they should be nice and supple. I plan to use this for him when I just want to cruise the ranch or go on a trail ride, so I just wanted to test it out all together. 

I did a lot of walking with Diablo and some neck reining. He's really quite sharp at neck reining considering how little I've done it with him. I did some posting along the long side and sitting on the short side with him, then did a little cantering with flying changes. There were other horses in the arena who left after we warmed up, then I worked on some stuff more seriously with him. 

We did some canter transitions, and I found his sweet spot for getting the left lead. He gave it pretty reliably today. Since he gets the flying change, I figured why not see if I can use that to help him understand picking up the correct lead. I did some simple changes, he got the right lead each time and picked up the left lead 80% of the time or so. I think he missed it twice. 

After cantering he's been getting a bit hot, and jiggy, not wanting to walk relaxed. I think I will go back to the kimberwick for a few rides to work on collecting him up and balancing more at the canter. I did ride him in a different bit with this headstall today, it's just a french link, so a little milder/less direct than the kimberwick or full cheek with copper roller. That might be why he was a little excited. 

Afterwards I walked him around the property and headed to the path by the pasture, but he started neighing at his friends, who proceeded to run at us, so I hopped off and lead him past before getting back to the cross ties to untack. I got a compliment that he is fast but that I ride him well. Some people have seen me riding seriously, but today was just a fun hack around so it felt awkward to be complimented. New bridle, jeans with no half chaps... for me it felt like a bad ride, I was slipping and sliding, my leg wobbled all over, kinda like in the videos I posted earlier. 

It makes me want to make the rides more worth it, and to get dressed up in real riding gear so I can actually ride and not just be a passenger like I was for most of today. I think I will do a few more days of hacking to refine some more stuff while it drys out then hopefully later this week or weekend I can hop him over a few fences again before going back to refining the movements on the flat. He needs to work on collection and extension, and going in a calmer manor where he's not flicking his nose when we halt or turn on the haunches and forehand. I want him a touch lighter in the hand too, but I don't want him to get bored of frustrated so I've gotta keep it interesting. 

We have less than 15 days left of the school year. I decided I won't work this summer. I think I will work on the horses, construct some jumps for the place, and visit my parents. My old friend who's down south can't afford her horses anymore and she's coming closer to 80 in the next few years. I told her I will ride them for her for 2 weeks when I visit so we can get some video and pictures, we can try to get them sold or leased out so that she can keep living at her current house with just 1 or 2 horses instead of 3. Hope that goes well. One's a TB who's got 2 club feet, on and off sound, but might be fixable with trimming, and the other one is a QH mare who has been through some stuff in her life and just needs a fresh start with someone who will be nice to her and not hit her. I think I can tune them up in 2 weeks, and get people to look at them but it will be up to her to move them, and she gets so emotional about that stuff. 

I hope next time I see Dodge he's not in a panic!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I think it might be time to reapply the Freedom. Glad to have this thread to go back to and check the timing of when I last gave it. 

Last time I rode Diablo I also gave him ivermectin. I think that was on Monday, my last post. 

Yesterday we went out for a ride. Diablo is pretty much cool and adjusted to all the arenas and stuff around the ranch. Now it's just the riding in focus, and looking into trail access as well. 

I took him in the jumping arena where there were some ground poles to practice on, and I decided to school him a little harder today than I normally would. He was light at a walk and trot, did some half pass stuff, then we did some cantering. He is still bearing down at a canter a little, so I worked on him keeping himself up in the canter. I let him do some galloping today as well. I always loved to gallop the exracers in the arena a little bit. Diablo is faster than the others, except this one mare CT who was freakishly fast. We also did some canter collection. I think I need to work him more on the transition from collected gaits to working gaits, then eventually extension. He was good, but at the end my finger went numb from pulling. I can only imagine how his tongue feels. He tried really well and didn't get frustrated. 

I think the next few times I ride him he will be thankful and willing. I think this hard ride will put the next nice rides into perspective a bit. I need to remember, even though I can ride him up into near perfect foot falls, he's still young so I shouldn't do that all the time until he gets a little more experience under his belt.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Yesterday Diablo went in a lesson without me there, which is exciting that she's finally using him. It gave me a chance to check on Dodge. 

She said Diablo was excited at the canter. To me he still feels like he is running off at the canter, he just needs more fitness so that he can better control his body. He's not actually running off. He needs lots of 2 point and maybe sitting around the short side of the arena until he gets more balanced on his own and can go better with sitting/in a frame. I can get him to walk on a loose rein after cantering but he does walk excitedly so that might be part of it. Were also working on slow calm walking. 

Dodge was good and I got to work on his back feet. Holy cow though, his hoof wall is seriously thick back there. I thought his front feet had a thick hoof wall, on his back feet it's gotta be 3/4" at least, just for the outer hoof wall. I don't have to trim his back feet as much as the fronts so I guess I just never noticed it before! He seemed happy, and wasn't spazzed out like he was last time. 

I also got to meet the vet I want to use. There's 2 vets around here from what I can tell, and after talking to 1 of them I knew I didn't want him working on my animals. The other one seems nice, but I didn't get to talk to her for long, and hopefully I never will! But still good to meet her. 

Lastly I ordered some stuff from Schneiders and somehow the address was entered in wrong, so now all that stuff is going to end up at my parents house about 500 miles away. There's nothing Schneiders can do about it. I'm not sure how the info got changed. I recall entering it in correctly, and they had my cc info saved somehow. I never save that stuff online, I'm at a loss how they had some of my info but not other parts of it, and how it got entered wrong. I like Schneiders, but sadly this is only the 2nd time I ordered from them and I had an issue the first time too, both with shipping addresses. This may have been my fault for not checking well enough, but I know I entered the address in, and somehow it was changed, so that's enough worry for me. Issues with SmartPak too, so now my list of online retailers for horse goodies is dwindling. 

Good thing we only have 10 days of school left, then I'm planning to visit down there or they may visit up here so either way I will get my hands on the stuff in a few weeks. It's mostly just fun stuff like polo wraps, backup saddle pad, boot laces, stuff I can live without... except the magnesium supplement... Well, that I could order on it's own and it won't kill me to have more sitting around, it will get used eventually.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diablo was really good today. Working on boring relaxed cantering was good for him. I just trotted a tiny bit on him then went right to cantering work. He never felt like he was running, but he is unbalanced. It's evident in me riding him, and also in his hoof wear. 

He isn't leaning in and paddling as much to the right anymore, but he gets stuck going left. It's time to work on some stretches with him again. Sometimes I just stretch him out while riding and get him to bend around to get loose. I should do that more, or better yet bend and stretch him on the ground before and after riding a little bit to build that flex on the left side. Going left I can get the shoulder to bend, but his hip and neck are frozen. He sometimes does better with belly tucks, rib tucks, and butt tucks too. 

He will do a lesson tomorrow but I have somewhere else I need to be at that time tomorrow. He will have been ridden 4 times in a row now, which should continue through the summer at least! He seems more relaxed when he's being ridden after working for consecutive days. I think I will ride this weekend too, and give Dodge something to do.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Life in an apartment means I'm washing horse blankets and pads in the tub...

I got the less dirty ones washed first, then the really hairy pad that I rode with when the winter coat came out. 

Then I washed the stable blanket, and wow that was a lot of hair. Good thing I have 2 hair catches on the tub!

Now I'm on the winter weight water proof one, and oh wow, this is taking some time. I rinsed it off with the hose one time between October and now, and we got a lot of rain, so he was wearing it for months on end. So much mud, manure, hair, yuck! my poor tub... But then I can finally put the blankets in storage for at least a little while!

Not too hot or sunny here, but I've got the long weekend for stuff to dry. 

Diablo has his lesson a little later today, and I'm planning to get some landscape timbers painted for ground poles!


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

There is a laundromat around here with no attendant, so I often sneak my blankets and pads in there. People are always very curious about what that giant, bright fabric is that I'm stuffing into the machines.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

gottatrot said:


> There is a laundromat around here with no attendant, so I often sneak my blankets and pads in there. People are always very curious about what that giant, bright fabric is that I'm stuffing into the machines.


Yes! Sometimes I take my pillows and comforter to one, I think I want to find another one to take the horse stuff, I know some are picky about horse items. That way if I get kicked out it's not the good one I like to go to!

I got the timbers, sanded, caulked, and primed. I'm not sure if I want to paint them. Ideally we would have them as ground poles since they are only 8', then I won't worry about paint. I may go pick up form 2x6x10 and figure out how to latch down my hatchback then I can make some plank fences that are 10' wide. I think we have standards but no poles!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Fun day today. Diablo is so tired, but it's nice too, he's really willing and giving the try still, even with the tiredness. He has been ridden 5 days in a row now!

I may ride him tomorrow, or let a friend ride him, then he has a lesson on Tuesday too. I think it's best if I ride him tomorrow and let him do a lesson Tuesday, then take Wednesday off as a break, and maybe Thursday as well. 

He is feeling different now that others are riding him, but it's in a positive way. They are keeping him on the 20m circle in the lessons for now, which is really helping him with balance. He's still a bit tricky turning, especially left since he throws his shoulder out around the turns. That's there I need to sit down and use my leg through the turn to get him to turn for me!

We started off getting the new poles up to the arena, then I turned him loose in the arena while I set the new fences. I had 6 poles, so I made a cross rail and a vertical diagonal line. The poles are landscape timbers so they are only 8ft long, which is the max I can fit in my car with the doors all closed anyway. They look nice, and I put some flowers in a flower box under one of them too. 

After that I tacked up and walked down to the arena. I got to use a different saddle that's a bit nicer than my old lesson saddle. It fits me and it's comfortable, so I think I get to use that one and the kids get to use it as well. Diablo liked it. We walked a bit, trotted some and integrated poles in the trotting. After that we did a tiny bit of canter each way to warm up, then did the jumping. 

We focused on jumping and waiting out the stride to the fence, he's good at picking either the longer, or shorter distance. It's too hard to ride to the sweet spot while trying to keep him slow, the stride just isn't there. I mostly want him to learn and be comfortable with waiting and putting in that extra step before a fence, so that when kids are learning to jump on him he knows to wait for them so they don't get too nervous. 

I took him through the new line I set up and he jumped it well. I set it to a 4 stride, but it was about 3 feet short from where it should be, so it was tight. He fit the 4 in and rocked back a bit for it, which made him jump it better. After I jumped the last fence of the line a few times as if it were a rollback. I took him the super short way the first time and he knocked the rail. The second time I took the longer approach and he jumped it great it felt really nice. Finally I went for the ultra short tight turn to it again and he got it. I really put him in a tricky spot but he didn't stop, he put in the effort and made it over. I think he will be a good horse for people to learn jumping on he's got good adjustment in the stride. 

His lesson was good yesterday. He hates the cows, which were out, but he kept it together. I think it's working out well so far. 

I did stop to get more flowers for the 2nd flower box we have that's naked right now. I will put those up tomorrow, and I'm thinking of getting some 2 x 6 x 10' lumber and making some plank fences tomorrow. If we got 2 more jumps set up in there we would have a legit course to go around. I can keep going with the timbers to make ground poles or skinny fences, but I think the 10' are ideal for the arena size. I'm going to try making 2 or 4 planks, sand, prime, and possibly paint them, and maybe after that another set of ground pole timbers. I think I want to decorate the plank fence with a brush box type filler underneath. There's tons of hemlock branches out in the field so I want to collect those to put in the box. Once summer starts I think I will try repairing the standards and poles that we currently have. They need to be sanded, repaired with caulking, possibly some new screws, primed, and repainted. Some of the poles it's worth it and some are toast, and might just be a good excuse to get rid of paint that's been lying around. 

I'm excited to get some pictures of the fences, and some of Diablo jumping them too! Soon, I need to load the old sd card to my computer before I can use it!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I got the rest of the flowers put in, and it looks great!
I also started sanding and repairing some of the old poles, inventoried the standards, and a few other little things. I also want to replace the strings on the jump cups but that might be for next weekend. 

I let Diablo have the day off to just walk, stretch, and rest. I think one of the girls rode him for a few minutes after I left. 

He was a little sore, and I can see a tiny bit of swelling behind his leg under he knee. It's so mild, most people wouldn't notice it. In fact, I initially noticed it a few days ago but it was so mild I didn't bother to check it further, just wait and see. It's still there a bit but it's still just really mild, tiny bit of fluid in the wind puff area, but again so mild, could be mistaken for a vein. I let the trainer know before the kid rode and let her know to watch out for it but that I still think he could be ridden and it won't hurt him. She opted to let him rest, which I think is fine too. I'm working after school this week so I won't ride him, the timing is good to be safe than sorry!

How many times did you fall, get a scrape, twist your ankle, or whatever else as a kid? Horses get to do that too, and they can go on to be just fine and not be lame because of it. If he were in a stall, I may have wrapped it, but wouldn't have given any bute. Since he's in the pasture I'm not going to wrap it and he can just walk and rest for a couple days, no biggie. 

Trying to plan more jumps and looking at going to the schooling show on the 9th!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Here's some pics so it's not all boring text. 

In taking these pictures I'm just taking a look at how he's standing, how he's wearing his hooves, and what I can change to make him more comfortable. 

What I see-
His knees turn out a little, but they are starting to be a little straighter as he gets stronger. 
He's a little bit base narrow, but hardly enough for me to think it a flaw. 
The front end is a little under himself, but not too bad. 

Then looking at his hooves, from the side I think I should take off the toe a little bit. There's kinda a bulge at the toe where the angle changes. That angle change is from when I got him. I think I finally got his feet where I wanted them around October. Once that grows out and off it will all be foot he's grown with me that I have trimmed myself. You can see higher up the change from the old barn to the new one. I suspect there may be some little lameness scare when that grows down too since his whole body was so compromised from the abscessing. I hope the swelling behind the knee is related to the toe getting a little in front of him, that's an easy fix for extra comfort. 

From the front I can see a little flaring on the outsides of both feet at the pillars and quarters that I can address a bit. 

Tough with him, it's easy to take too much off since he's got thin walls. 

Welcome anyone to leave their feedback. I know it's just a couple pictures. At some point I'll have to post the hoof progression on him like I did for his body conditioning!


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

He's not from Mr. Prospecter lines is he? My TB has his right front leg turn out slightly too, and I read that was something Mr. Prospecter passed on to many of his offspring genetically.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

gottatrot said:


> He's not from Mr. Prospecter lines is he? My TB has his right front leg turn out slightly too, and I read that was something Mr. Prospecter passed on to many of his offspring genetically.


Yes, he is!
He's got Mr. Prospector, and Native Dancer. Both sides. 

I was thinking about this more, thinking it's not too big of a deal, but I think I need to be more serious about it since I'm realizing both brothers bowed in front, one for sure on the right, the other I'm not sure but I know it was a front. 

That's one thing I love about this horse, is knowing so much about his mom, brothers, I feel like I have an advantage over training and knowing what he needs health wise to be the best!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

My local laundromat has a big sign, no horse blankets!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

He had 4 days off, but got a little check up by the lesson trainer while I was teaching after school this week. Just one week left!

To me, going from a little swelling and thickening of the tendon below the knee to none of that today was great to see. He had a small amount of fluid along all his legs, basically stocking up is what I'm thinking. A little weird seeing as he's out on pasture walking around a bit. I would expect it in a stall, and wrap him, but can't do that for him out there. I'm not sure if that's reasonable for pasture horses to have some stocking up seeing as he's the first free from the stall that I've owned. I guess we will see what happens. 

Good news is the stocking up went down to nothing after 10 minutes of walking undersaddle. I trotted him for a few steps as well to feel it out. He is definitely different from side to side as I knew from him paddling and before that, having the issues going left, so nothing new there. He is feeling more even, but still not quite tracking up how I expect on the left hind, so it's no surprise to me that the right front is a little off with that. 

Another thought I had was that after he slipped in the old pasture and had to move, he had some swelling behind his knee in the same spot. It went away quickly, but I don't doubt now that he may have had more than just those abscesses going on. If this keeps coming up then I suspect he injured himself in that location considerably in the old pasture, and or before I owned him. 

Then there's his feet, you can see the flaring on the lateral quarters, and it only got worse since I took those photos. I rasped the spreading and flare back, and measured his heel and all around his hoof. One heel was a few swipes higher so I took it down to what I think is even, I will post some pictures later. I was able to get rid of almost all the old hoof this time, so it's just about all hoof from my ownership now. Sure it's not perfect, since the stuff below was influencing his new growth to some extent. It will truly be closer to another year from now before his feet are really healthy. He's also got these cracks which I've not really seen before on too many horses. I will post pics of those too. They are horizontal along the front of the hoof from the toe to about half way up the hoof. There are multiple, but they are small, 1/2 in or so. I think they may be related to the abscesses. Ones I'e seen from abscesses were lines, these are a little jagged. They weren't there when the hoof was growing but rather showed up a little while after the abscesses. 

With what I trimmed off there's a chance he will be a little tender in the pasture since I took a lot of wall off and generally made his hoof smaller, but the stuff I took off will ease his breakover giving his legs some relief. I may just need to take out the hoof boots again for protection from those big gravels that are 1 in across. 

My plan is to go forward with the riding tomorrow then see how he is on Sunday. If we ride him and he's fine he can keep going but we will just space out his breaks a little more, and if he's not good then we will let him rest for another week and see. The thing is, he's running out in the pasture, and also eager under saddle, so I don't think he's hurting, and if he has swelling, but he's not hurting then I think it's ok to agitate it a little and create scar tissue to strengthen the area, it's already damaged at least very minorly, so it's not really going to 'heal', but it will repair the best it can. 

I am also just someone who thinks a lot, and were talking such a small amount of swelling here, most people who've had horses for years may not even notice it... I just want to be careful for my boy.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I'm still failing at just taking the pictures, but I will soon! Maybe in a week or something. 

Diablo seemed ok when he was hacking. I hopped him over a crossrail and he felt a little funky after it, so I'm thinking that it's the jumping that his body is not in agreeance with right now. We will see how he is tomorrow after 24 hours post hack with jump. If he's not looking too good or looks funny then he will get some rest days until it seems ok again, then I will see how he gets along with just hacking and no jumping and see if that is better for him. I think he still needs more fitness but I think he did too much riding a couple weeks ago and may do better with rest interspersed rather than consecutively. I'd forgotten I have liniment for his legs when they get stocked and stuff. I put some on today to see if that would help reduce the swelling. He's not really swollen badly like I said, but it's enough to concern me. I will just check on him and groom him for the next 2 days. Maybe walk undersaddle or just hand walk for a little bit to get rid of the stocking up stuff. 

It may be that he's getting worn from being in pasture. I can tell he wants to lay down and sleep in some nice shavings and sleep... If he will be ok with walking and trotting then I will take him to the show next weekend and enter walk trot, which I'm sure will not hurt him at all! May trot crossrails, not sure yet. Then I want to ask for a stall for sat night and Sunday so he can sleep in in the stall and recoup a little. 

I caulked some of the old poles, primed them, then transported 3 more poles from one arena to the other. Now we have 4 poles that will actually look nice, and 5 poles that will really only serve as ground poles. I haven't primed the chipped up ones yet for ground poles, I may do that last. I also found someone who may be able to source 3-4in diameter posts at 10ft long, so if we get those I'm in business to prime and paint them, and prime some standards for a re-doux. Might even build some standards.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

I haven't seen stocking up in a horse turned out on pasture, but I'm sure it's possible if they stand around in one place for awhile.

I agree that it takes a very long time for hooves to grow out well, even more than a year. I've heard people say "one or two trims and we'll have it right," but in my experience that is more about correcting things like imbalance and breakover but not about having the whole hoof grow down with more concavity, balance, flares grown down all the way from the hairline, etc. 
With your abscess and crack issues, I'm also guessing you might have to go through one or two more growth cycles to get it all right.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Yeah, I agree. Even if I was able to trim them better than they were before, the last of old distorted hoof is hitting the ground now pulling what's above it out a little. He's now got a line from when I got him, I can see another from where he started getting supplements, then one from when he moved into the stall, and one again now that he's been in pasture. The good news is that his hoof grows out in 9-10 months. His feet aren't bad right now, but they are long in the toe, and I'm worried that if I take more off he may be sore in the pasture. I think 2 more weeks will be the time I need. 

I bet my choice in doing that has made traveling more difficult for him and could have influenced the strain he was experiencing. 

I rode him on Sunday and did a little jumping. He was ok, but was in one of those I don't want to jump moods. He didn't have any stocking up on Monday, but he looked a tiny tiny bit off on his right front when trotting on the lunge line. 

Still planning to go to the show on Sunday, and arranged for him to have a stall for Saturday to rest and stay clean, and on Sunday after we get back so he can have a couple nights in to sleep and rest. I want to wrap him after the show regardless just as a preventative thing I guess. And that's always what I've done so it's just part of the show routine I want him to get used to.

My brain is running out of clarity, so I think I said the cracks were horizontal... They are vertical! I did some research and now think they are grass cracks. They go up about as far as the no supplement hoof goes, then stop right about where I suspect the supplements started. Here's those pictures. He's standing in a bit of a rut.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I'm going to do 2 more posts, one for the left front, then the right front with some hoof pictures. 

If you see anything please let me know! I really love to have as many looks as possible to I can see things I may not see!

This hoof seems to be getting a little distorted on the medial wall. I may need to pull the wall back in a stronger bevel around some areas, but I'm not as much worried about the quarters as I am the long toe.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Here's the right hoof. 

This one I'm having some trouble seeing the balance on. The medial side grows down, but the lateral side flares out. I tried to level it but it seems longer because it's flared out more. I'm not sure what to do with that one.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Just one more for comparison...
Here's when I got him. 

https://www.horseforum.com/hoof-care/hoof-ring-frog-contact-questions-797205/

At some point I'll search for the in between pics and post the progress, but I also think I can get them better and wait a little bit to get even more pictures for a full scope view.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

The hooves are looking great, you are doing a wonderful job with them. Much, much better than they were before. 
For flaring like what you have on the right front, I just keep the wall so it doesn't get much taller than the sole, and then keep the flaring rasped down a bit on the outside. That way it doesn't stay too wide down at the ground level, and keep pulling the wall away as it grows, continuing the same problem. This has worked well for me. I think those small cracks will continue to grow out as the hoof wall gets healthier with good diet and trimming. 

You probably know this already, but just in case.
Most horses will have some degree of asymmetry between the medial and lateral wall, with the hoof being slightly wider laterally. The medial wall just grows a bit more upright naturally because of how they bear weight. At least one study I've read showed that horses have denser tubules in the hoof wall at the toe but also in the medial quarters, so they seem to be made to grow that way naturally.
Of course, that is different than flaring, but I guess it's something I keep in mind when a hoof looks just slightly off balance. 
HOOFsmart · Should a Horse?s Hooves be Symmetrical?


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Thank you @gottatrot! It's been fairly easy to manage his hooves compared to Dodge who has high/low. Diablo's feet are much more normal. 

I think I will try rasping down the lateral side from the top so it's not flaring out. Then the wall will be thinner further down so hopefully that will ease the wear down and it will wear down naturally rather than distort and flare. It's worth a try at least. Hopefully it doesn't result in chipping, but Diablo's feet haven't really chipped much, mostly just distort. 

Well, besides all that I'm struggling here with the decision I've made to go to this show tomorrow. I just feel so nervous I may be doing him a disservice to his health and his leg. Last time I rode him was in the hard gravel arena, which isn't totally level, and going down the down slopes he was a little gimpy. Just trotting... but he was willing to do it on his own. No noticeable lameness at the walk or canter. He is resistant to stretch the right leg forward. I'm starting to think this is a check ligament injury. 

I still don't see how trailering to the show, walking the property, doing a walk trot class, maybe wtc, MAYBE crossrails will hurt him. I may scratch the crossrails, it's just not worth it unless they are like, 6 inches. Maybe I can scratch and swap the class for a flat class instead. Might do that. 

The other thing, I have only ridden him twice in the past 2 weeks, which isn't how most people prepare... It's this balance between his health, my schedule, and his behavior. He needs enough riding that he's not a turd about it, as little riding as possible to give him the time he needs to rest and recover, and finding the time to care for him with finishing up school, which is done by the way! Yay!

My plan is to lunge him today to see how he goes, and possibly walk him undersaddle with the show pad to see how he's feeling and how it's fitting. After that he gets a shower, and some wraps with liniment and is going up in the stall for the night. Then tomorrow we will trailer to the show, get a stall to hang out in, walk the property, lunge there a little bit, then walk around undersaddle. I will probably just trot him a tiny bit before the class to warm up, but mainly let the walk trot class be the warmup for the crossrails if I decide on that, or the wtc if I skip the fences. After the show I want to put him up in the stall with wraps again for one more night before going back to the pasture full time. 

I think my plan after all this is to ride Dodge and let Diablo sit out on the pasture for a month, then recheck him and see how he's looking. I'm not really into getting the vet out for this type of thing. They can take pictures with their machines that might show tearing, fluid, or nothing, but ultimately the horse is the one who says what his recovery should be to make it the best for him. I'd rather read Diablo and let him tell me what he needs. I need to be fair to him, and this horse show doesn't feel like it is, so I need to make it as fair for him as I can. Maybe that means no showing but just going there to check it out for the experience. All I can do is wait and see, and I don't think that's wrong. 

The other thing on my mind is... When Diablo moved from the old pasture he has swelling under his knee on this same leg. He also had sore feet and heels. He was totally lame even walking. I felt that he may have injured the tendon but prayed he did not and that it was all his feet. 3 months at the new barn and he was sound, the crap was out of his feet, and the tendon was fine. I'm wondering if that was the initial offense to this whole ordeal that is stuck on my mind. The 3 months off for his feet may have been all that leg needed, but then working harder, which he wasn't ready for, reinjured the weakest part of him. I will never know but my brain doesn't stop speculating.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

After today I have a better idea about what's going on. 

I got there, did a lunge and he was great looking. I will post the videos of him walking and trotting on the lunge. I figured, going good, lets walk and trot undersaddle. All good until I was nearly done trotting and he took a bad step then went lame again. Still that right front, no swelling at all. 

So I stopped, cursed a bit, figured this is why I have 2 horses...

Gave him a bath then found a bad bump on his rear leg, looks like he got kicked in the back leg, but that's not related to this. 

He got wrapped with liniment and put up in the stall. I put some magnesium on him as well, and gave him a magnesium supplement too. I finally got the supplement I accidentally sent to my parents house. No bute, no swelling, just time now. 

I decided I will take him out of the wtc and xrails and go into the walking poles, walking undersaddle, then try the walk trot, though I may need to excuse myself if he's no good or takes that funny step. 

All's well other than that, and I'm excited for him to look around and see the show, and then to take a month off after that. I'll post the videos when they upload. He doesn't look too off in them at all, and I didn't get any footage of him after the bad step because I didn't want to stress it out anymore.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

walking









trotting









The hotly contested question of today, is he landing toe first? I think when he is walking and trotting lazily he is, but when he steps up I'm seeing a flat foot landing. If he was landing toe first you'd see the sand splash out in front which you can see when he's being lazy. I also don't see a lot of rotation/movement in the coffin joints which tells me the hoof is landing flat. Back feet... might be a different story, they are due to be trimmed, and it's mostly toe!

This is just a couple weeks "off" I rode him a few times so it wasn't truly and completely time off, so I think giving him twice as long off will do the trick, then maybe just some walking undersaddle for a few weeks, then trying trot again after that will be my plans. 

I never got to do lead line as a kid so I think it will be fun  Plus, everyone gets a ribbon LOL.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Wow, we're all tired. Diablo resisted for about 10 min going on the trailer both times but we made it. He was great at the new location, nothing weird, did great. I swapped the wtc, walk trot, and xrails for 2 classes of poles, and one lead line walking only. 

Walked the pole course, then walked in leadline with all the newbies and kids under 5 being led around. Diablo wasn't phased by anything there. 

Our whole crew did great in fact! Super happy for everyone! Will update later with some video and details.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Ok, I'm ready for the long version now!

We got to the barn around 7am, it was still cool, and a little early for me. Diablo was wrapped from the day before, so he was pretty much ready to go. I connected with the other people and got some hay for the horses loaded in the trailer. The ponies got loaded in the other trailer and took off after a little pony drama that ended up being nothing. I found out no one had eaten breakfast so I made sure to get Diablo some pellets and yummy alfalfa in him before we left, as much as he could eat. 

Diablo just didn't want to get in the trailer. Like some days when he doesn't want to jump. I try to win and let him win, but today he had to go so we tried being nice, but we had to smack him around a bit to get him in since this wasn't training. I ended up getting him in the big door, then turning and backing him in the slot. It was a BIG 2 horse straight load. 

We drove there, then unloaded and walked around. Diablo liked to neigh and stomp in the trailer, but seems to have done it less this time than last time. He jumped off excitedly then we walked the grounds, in the arenas a little bit, and then back in the stall. He drank a lot of water while I filled it, but more on that later, it will come into play. He settled in right away and neighed a little bit with the other horses. 

I checked in for the show, traded the classes around, checked on the kids who were showing with us, and ordered my dad around so we could get everything done quickly. After that I noticed they weren't running the classes in the arena I was in and it was past time to start. The people hosting the show had some kids to go in there too but they weren't ready yet. I decided to tack up and walk around undersaddle. Diablo knows when someone is on him he needs to be careful. He gives this no worries vibe most of the time, sometimes the thoroughbred gets the better of him. After that I knew we were ready and figured it would be ok to be the first person to show up to start. 

I warmed up (aka walked around more in their super duper nice footing) and walked down to see if they were ready. They said any time, so I figured the kids should get on and get ready to start, and we would all hang out as a group. Once we populated the other people started showing up. The hunter poles were first, a course of lines and diagonals. I knew we would walk the poles to stay sound, and that poles wouldn't really hurt him. The first was off the left to a diagonal single, change across to the right, then the outside line. Diablo wasn't "trying" here, he just walked over them and bumped his toe on one. After that he woke up a bit and figured out that he could "try harder" and finished up the line by looking down at the poles! Great thing for the judge to see, how smart my greenie is that he looks at what he's jumping, but not in a scary way, just a smart way. We did the next diagonal coming from a long approach going right, then a quick change to the left for the final line. He started looking down and lifting up his feet more and started moving over the poles a lot better!

Next was equitation poles, same course, so I picked up my reins a tiny bit more and cut the corners off the arena as much as I could while still hitting the pole on a straight line and straight body. I did the "eq turns" at a walk. I realized how great this type of thing is to do, and now I'm excited to do this at home as part of controlled exercise while Diablo rests and heals. Everyone had gone in our group so we hopped off before the flat classes and crossrails. It took forever for the other group to finish the poles. ALL the kids from the other barns were lead around by a handler, which I felt was a little weird, but whatever! At least I was allowed to walk the poles!

Finally it came time for the walking flat classes. The judge basically told me I was too old to be against the kids, but I just shrugged. My horse isn't too old for it! He's never even done it! My goal was simple, exposure in an arena with multiple other horses, and halting at the end away from the judge calmly. This couldn't have been more perfect a test! low risk! Everyone gets a ribbon so I chose green cause he looks pretty with it. 

I put Diablo up while they finished up, and set the crossrails. Then when they were ready I left Diablo to rest while I helped at the show. The horses did good and so did the riders. It was such an awesome show for everyone, and one girl won 3 of 4 classes, and one kid of ours won the other class! My friends green boy was proud of himself showing off and acting a little goofy but he still did awesome! He got some 3rds and 4ths in the cross rails and 2ft fences. 

Afterward I made sure all the kids got their ribbons and prizes for their hard work, and scheduled the pony ride to show up and get them. Again, no pony drama, and we think the one pony girl might have actually enjoyed herself! We loaded the boys, same deal with Diablo there... but we made it!

I put him back up in the stall and went to put some electrolytes in the water bucked, when I noticed it was EMPTY. I freaked out, my horse hadn't had water the night before because I wasn't responsible enough to actually check the water in the stall we borrowed! I felt so bad and knew that's why he'd drank so much at the show. Usually on hot days at the show I let them sip up to 10 gulps but not more at one time, then wait 20 min or so before offering again. At the show I waited before refilling the bucket, and he drank it all again! He was so thirsty there, and now I know why. I turned the water on and he was so happy to drink but said it tasted salty and he didn't like it, but surely he needed the heaping scoop in there because it's been in the 100's for a couple days now. 

This morning my dad grabbed him and we put him back in the pasture where he was happy to see his buds and will not get some hot chill time. 

I will post some videos of us going later once I get them sent to me!


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Whew, that must have been nerve-wracking to realize your horse hadn't had water. But it sounds like he made up for lost time and all was well.

Sounds like it was a great show! Who cares if you're with the kids if you're getting your horse good experiences.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

For me, I don't drink much if at all at night, hard to know if he does or not!

Dodge got a hoof trim today. I used the nippers which I usually don't use. It's been long enough that was the only way it was going to work. They got a little stuck and twisted which made a line up his hoof a little, but my fingernails aren't usually sore with that type of thing. 

I think I will make Dodge a thread to keep track of him now that Diablo is going to be getting some r&r.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

We all make mistakes. I've done some doozies.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Checked things out with Diablo today. I think he's sore on the rocks all around the pasture and ranch. I got some keratex to put on, and I'll be getting durasole soon. I'll see how that works for him. I can see where the wearing is happening on his soles since he's been in the pasture. Now it would be great for him to develop some nice thick callousing across more of his hoof. I think it's mainly due to the hot dry time of year happening, the ground is hard! I have some hoof pics, may post those later, or maybe not.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Checked him out today and there's not as much soreness on the rocks as there was before. His legs have continued to be just fine and swelling free. 

He's just in a little bit of a pinch, hard footing is hurting his feet underneath, but the soft footing isn't too good for his tendons, so he's showing his tenderness and can't escape it. But I think the sole hardeners are working already to give him that extra comfort. 

I think the keratex helped and I got the durasole today so that went on too. I think I may take him for a hand walk next time I see him and then I'm going to be away for the week, so he'll get another week off. I may ride him walking undersaddle when I get back and do that for a few weeks. 

He's had a week and a half off since the show, so by the time I get back he will have had 3 weeks off, and I think that's enough of him choosing what to do. Now he can walk and we will do some walking rehab type stuff for a while and see what happens.


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## Hondo (Sep 29, 2014)

subscribing........


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Thank you Hondo!

Just a pre-post warning, 

*the photos below are gory!*

See next post for gore.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

So, this is not the update I hoped to post returning from my visit/vacation to see my parents, friends, dog, cat, other horses, etc...

I got in late last night and everything was good. This morning I got a call while out at breakfast that Diablo had a serious injury. 


I tried calling back but got nothing, then got a text from a friend headed to the barn. I told her I was on the way but could she scope it out so I have a better idea of what I'm dealing with. He busted his knee, and has other scrapes too. 

In the contract we have a spot for injury, what vet to call, how much they can spend if the owner ca't be reached etc... so thankfully by the time I got there the vet was already on her way!

Diablo scraped his knee, with concussive force. He scraped the other front knee and had road/pasture rash there, scraped open his elbow, and another superficial scrape on his flank. The fly sheet got shredded. (Good thing I have an extra waiting new in the packaging!)

I decided to cold hose it, which I now know is debated... It can reduce swelling, which I was interested in, but can also introduce bacteria into the wound. There was crusty blood, fresh blood, and foamy off white stuff coming out of it. I couldn't see any bone or tendon though. 

The vet arrived and checked it over, and we started. He got dormosedan, shaved up, got lidocaine on there, and the vet started cleaning. It looked to me like it was going to be difficult to close up at first. Feeling around there was no bone exposed, and only a small amount of tendon that was exposed and she agitated the tendon area where there was some exposure. It looked ok, not severed or punctured. Still there was worry about the possibility of infection getting into those structures. We decided he did not need to go to the hospital, but that I would keep his temp checked and watch for sudden immobility and extreme pain as a sign of the joint being infected. 

After that she cleaned it up more, cleaned the edges and removed an area of flesh so that the wound would close. A few anchor stitches were put in, then the interrupted stitches to fill it in. It closed up and we left the bottom part open so that it could drain. 

She bandaged him up and we were basically done in 2 hours. She recommended 2g bute initially, then 1g twice a day after that. I told her I would keep an eye on it and give as needed. He's going to get SMZs for 10 days (just so I remember he gets 15 pills 2x a day, which is standard in my experience). She wants to recheck before stopping the antibiotic so that we can be sure there's no infection. I will check temps every day, 2x a day when I give the meds at 8:30. He should be good to get stitches out in 14 days as is standard also. I can change the bandage after 3/4 days and then change as needed based on how wet it is. 

I'm glad I got him insured, I hope they will cover the bandaging materials and that I can just buy them from the vet! Everything else should be covered and hopefully there are no complications. 

It seems many people were impressed by how cool I was about it, but I've seen a lot, worse than this... My last horse had a serious knee injury like this and he recovered well, this feels like a repeat experience from that. Must be initiation for a horse to be mine that they bust their knee...

We think he fell down while running down hill, it's pretty clear by the fly sheet that he tumbled... He will be in the barn, but I need to decide what to do with him long term. It seems he's not holding up too well out there in the injury department, but is doing ok in other ways. I feel like he looses either way, being in a stall or in the pasture. Maybe some day he can live in a paddock with Dodge and I won't have to worry about confinement or about wilderness. I can dream...

Anyway! Here's the pics.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Just to put another warning, in case your reading from bottom to top like I enjoy doing...

*There's some gory photos above!
*

Also, forgot to add, he did get bandages on both knees and on the whole left leg, phone died so no pics of the pretty bandage, but I think I can get some later when I go back to give the meds. 

We'll see how good my bandages come out in a few days too!


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Oh man, I am so sorry!!! Horse accidents are the worst. 

That is similar to what happened to Halla's knees, but I think your injury will turn out a lot better because the vet was able to close it. Mine was not stitched. Hope he heals up well. :sad:


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

@gottatrot do you have pictures, or a page range for where they might be in your journal?

He's doing good. 

I had a little trouble getting him to eat the meds on Sunday morning. I mixed it with alfalfa pellets just like I did Saturday night, but I guess 1 time was all he would tolerate. He knew he was supposed to eat it so he tried to nibble it out of my hands on Saturday morning, but after about 1/3 of it he stopped and I went for the syringe in the mouth method which he was fine with!

I went out an bought A&M yesterday. Yes it's something like 20% molasses (haven't actually read the tag!) but it does the job where I don't have to worry, and he doesn't have to learn to hate medicine time. Even though it's high in sugar, he will be okay. I might find out if they can feed him the low NSC hay to trade off for the extra sugar he's getting, but he's also not a sugar sensitive horse, so who knows. Probably no issues either way, though I got a scoff for telling someone that's how the meds were going down. 

That all got me reading, I found this interesting
Are Sweet Horse Feed Mixes with Molasses OK?
They say that A&M is 20% molasses, but that the molasses is only 10% sugars, so it's not actually any higher in sugars than regular 12% hay! (And so what, alfalfa has NO SUGAR in it? haha) Interesting, but not too informative. 

The vet is out tomorrow for another horse, so I will get the bandage materials from her and change it on Wednesday morning. He's kept constant on temps at 99.1-.2. It looks like he's feeling well enough that he can walk around a bit more in the stall. There's been no/very little swelling which I love love love. I think today will be the last day of bute 2x a day, and starting tomorrow I'll just give him 1g since he's not sore or swollen and moving fine.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Hopefully this won't be discouraging because you have more advantages than I did. The vet was not able to close the wounds and both were a full thickness loss all the way down to the joint. So Halla had to grow the new skin over from the sides, which the vet said a half inch takes about a month. 
We also dealt with quite a bit of proud flesh, so had to do some cutting away at the wound several times.

I don't have good close ups of the initial injury of Halla's knees: It happened in August 2012.









This was about a month later in Sept.:









Five months later in Jan.:









This was several years later, showing the amount of scar tissue she ended up with. At first I was just happy she survived, but she was able to get back into work after about six months and I was able to ride her a lot the next several years. She did end up with arthritis in the knees about five years later, but she was also 20 then.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Yikes!
I'm assuming that was a concussive force injury?

That's tough, because not only can they loose skin just hitting the ground, but when the skin is under extreme pressure it can die leaving it useless for stitching. Then, on top of all that, if there's been any swelling you might not be able to get it to close up entirely. Then just add to it that it's over the joint! So many factors to consider and that's not even all!

We had a foal who skinned his leg and that had to be wrapped for a few months, he was a good patient though. 

With Diablo, she took off a pretty good chunk of meat, including some of those smaller tendons that run over the front off the knee to be able to close it up. It's bad, but I've seen worse/bigger injuries before and other types of injuries as well and feel I can get it to heal nicely with a scar and some scar tissue in the front of the knee... I think eventually I can work on it to break up the scar tissue a bit and the scar to go away but that will be a few years down the line.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diablo is doing about as well as can be. 

He hasn't spiked a fever at all, and the bandage change with the vet went well! He stood fine, and the edges are starting to granulate, though from him laying down there is now a gap where the stitches were, so there will probably be some a scar and possibly some proud flesh there!

I need to change his bandage tomorrow on my own. Maybe I can make it look as nice as the vets job!

Yesterday morning he was looking really good, and I put more silvadine creme on his wounds. When I got back last night he had started licking his skinned knee. I cleaned it off with betadine and could see some white infection ooze coming out from him licking it. I put more creme on and threw a standing wrap on it. I like to use taller pillows on the wraps then what's normal I guess. This just offers coverage to the knee and pastern should it be needed. Works out well in this case. Covered enough of the knee to keep him from licking it and gave the support he needed to hopefully get that swelling gone!

I cleaned off his elbow and picked at it just a tiny bit. It's looking good!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Today was bandage change day for me. Vets around here all charge the emergency call fee for weekends... I can change a bandage if it saves me $100! The call fee is not covered under the insurance!

It's 50/50 good and bad. 

Two of 7 stitches are still holding flesh together. The other 5 have failed. The two that are holding are on the lateral side, so overall they are helping in reducing the size of the now open wound. It's about 2.5 inches across anyway you measure it by my best estimates. 

There's good granulation going on especially on the lateral edge, you can see the nice pink fleshy tissues closing in the space. I would say it was initially about a 6 inch length of skin that had to be stitched. With the 2 stitches that held it's just a small area on the lateral side where we decided to put no stitches- serving as a drain as it was the lowest point. That I am sure will close without issue in the next week, maybe even in the next 4 days for the next bandage change. 

Then the big area that's right over the center and medial side of the knee is open. It was starting to granulate on the medial side last time we changed the bandage on Tuesday. This time it was pretty bloody there so I'm assuming some of the tissue that sloughed down was starting to granulate and may have stretched open. There's definitely good good granulation going on on the lateral side of the big open space. That part is good, this thing was a huge flappy bit so I'm glad it's stuck on in general. I think I'm at the point where this is just a surface wound instead of going really deep anymore. 

Here's more yucky pictures of wound stuff to take a look at. 

I'm certainly at the point where I'm getting burnt on these twice daily visits, so let's hope that on Thursday when the vet stops by that it's closed even more, and that the stitches can come out (will be 12 days on Thursday, or I can remove them myself at 14 days if it's really necessary, or perhaps a combo of the two!), and let's also hope that at that point this thing is small enough to stop antibiotics... please! I suspected initially that I may have to keep to wrapped even after the stitches were removed for another week or so. I'm thinking it may be longer than that now, but at some point the decision will be made to switch from wet wound care with bandaging to letting it dry out. It's just a question of how closed the vet wants it before making that call. I think at this point I could heal it without the bandage but if the open area gets down to the size of a quarter or so then I'll be really happy to leave it open, and maybe just covered with a little but of alushield. 

I did email them with the pics and asked if there's anything to do from a cosmetic standpoint about the lump of sloughing tissue under the wound, he's just such a young horse, maybe it can be reduced so he looks normal, maybe not, I don't have experience in that area.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Oh, just one more picture of my bandaging skills...!

I went for dry wound care on the other knee now. He was licking it after Tuesday when we took the bandage off. I just threw a wrap on but finally decided to leave it dry with some dust on it since it's a small shallow area. Just a film of white-ish yellow ooze on the top. I think dry will keep the infection away if he can go without licking it!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Hope things improve soon.


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## carshon (Apr 7, 2015)

poor guy


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Diablo is healing well. 

I emailed the vet the images and she said it's looking great besides the stitches failing. 

The bandage was changed yesterday, and he was so good. I just told him it's really important and that I need you to hold totally still. He found his comfort spot then stood still and let me wrap it and I got to make it look nice and fit really well. He's still eating the meds, but he is peeing a lot from the molasses so his stall is constantly stinky it seems. I'm going to ask about switching him to a couple feedings of the low starch hay to see if that helps. 

The last bandage was a little janky since I didn't have all the bandage materials I needed! I'm glad this one is better. 

He seems to be used to standing in the stall, looking out the window and overall not too grumpy and angsty, but maybe a bit bored and depressed like me. I am nearly out of money for July and August since I don't get paid at the end of July. Everything will be fine, but he's got to be in the stall that's $750 a month instead of the pasture which is $300, and I'm not sure if I explicitly mentioned this but my bf left so now I have to bear the full grunt of the rent on my own. Everything will be fine, and I have other money tucked away places for times like these, it just sucks to have to be in this situation. Hopefully after the insurance company sends me back a check everything will be great and can carry on as normal. 

Some pictures I'll post are from after the bandage came off before I cleaned it off, then after I cleaned it off, and a couple of my bandage pride.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Here's it all clean...

Also any ideas out there for low body strain tricks and mentally stimulating things I can do with him in the stall (no walking even hand walking still)?

I did "smile" and he got that within 3 sessions, but what else can I occupy him with? 

He needs some mental stimulation. I am thinking I will do some carrot stretches later today since I don't think that will hurt at this point but I'd love to have something more for him to think about.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

That looks like it is healing really well. Great bandaging job. 

Does he like anything hanging like milk jugs on a string to push around? Or a hanging treat on a string?


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Best visit yet!

Stitches are out, no more antibiotics. This knee is pretty much closed up, and now it's a proud flesh battle. She wants to keep it wrapped with an antibiotic/steroid ointment then trim away the PF as needed, I'm certain it will be twice it will need to be trimmed. 

I'm so happy, I get to sleep in tomorrow, and we decided to have a wine tasting party at the barn tomorrow since all the lesson kids went to horse camp this week! Woo hoo!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I feel this is a little bit of a turning point for me, because as I mentioned in the post Thursday I have some freedom now and am no longer locked into antibiotics 2x daily. 

We had a great time at our little wine party last night. I hope this becomes a Friday in July tradition. 

Here's the pictures of Diablo's leg from Thursday.

We're down to a bandage just over the knee with a foamy pad and panalog to keep the PF at bay. She said this bandage can stay on as long as needed until it starts coming off. Diablo is a good boy, so that could be as long as a week or more. When I asked she said, 3 days? I said at least 5, and she thought that was ok. 

We talked a little about treating it open and dry versus covered and wet. She said this is the way to go. At this stage, I've seen vets go different ways, and I honestly haven't seen a huge difference between healing methods. I think covered wounds are a little more comfortable, especially when they are over a joint! So that's what we'll stick with. 

I think I can track down some milk jugs and put some rocks and a string up for him. He will totally play with that sort of stuff! I did decide that I will keep him in the stall, and it sounds like the BO wants me to cut some wood and attach it to one of the arena fences to keep the footing in. That might be my break in the board costs, since I let her know I was out of money and wanted her to send a bill before I ran out, which she didn't do so I think she's ok with putting me to work. That and she knows I'm still off this summer. 

I also painted a few of the jump poles yesterday and we discussed setting a course that allows for the tractor to drag the arena while the jumps are still set. I think that's totally reasonable so I need to measure the tractor today and see how far off the rail the fences need to be. We will have one jump that looks legit now that I painted the poles! There's another set of standards in the same color, but they are breaking, so we need to determine if it's better to salvage those, to just build new ones. That's where our hang up lies. I can cut, sand, assemble, prime, paint, everything, but I can't purchase and transport the lumber. We'll see what happens, that might be for next year!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Wow you guys, today it looks so good! But there was a huge offensive bandage sore. 

He had the bandage replaced on Thursday evening, and this morning it had fallen off. I did also try to trim his feet yesterday, which may have caused the sore or loosened he bandage, or both. 

It was a big hot lump at the back of the knee, and the point at the back of the knee was bleeding, which we already saw coming a week ago as there was a small sore there. I just used my best judgement to still apply pressure to the knee wound while allowing the area at the back of the knee to remain uncovered. It worked well. 


Today was about supporting one of the barn mates at her show. She's such an awesome horseman I'm lucky to get to be part of the crew. We all have 5yo TBs that we are training to jump and go to shows. We have more shows planned, and some where all 3 of us can go!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

More good news. 

The wound doesn't look much different than the last time I saw it on Sunday, but the skin has likely closed up a bit since then and I just couldn't tell. We're at the point where the skin closes, and sometimes that can be a while! I'm hoping like 10 days, she said maybe up to 2 weeks. 

Got the ok to walk for 10 minutes for a week then increase by 5 min a day after that up to 45 min. Hand walk or undersaddle is ok too. No falling or anything that could tear up that new tissue deep down in there. If he slams it again it's going to pop open again. 

Also got the ok to let it heal up on my own, and if anything weird happens can call back. I asked her about the soreness he's got in his left leg hip area. It's the same spot he was stiff and stuck in before a few months back when he wasn't getting the left lead. He finally got really balanced, but this is the 2nd time he's assaulted the same area of his body so let's jut hope he's still young enough that it's okay. Planning to save a bit for the chiro to come see him after we get toward the end of that walking phase and get into the trotting phase. 

After that I gave him a massage and cleaned him off. I think tomorrow we'll stroll around the property a bit and see what kind of mind this guy has after 2 weeks in the stall! He's really great just walking for 5 minutes, but who knows what those extra 5 minutes will do!

After the horsey stuff tomorrow I've got some 1 x 6 and 4 x 4's coming in to make planks and octagonal poles. There's some debate on if we should 'set a course' in the arena, or just set individual fences/exercises, well I might just go out there and do both. We'll see...

Also getting into the territory of cross country stuff and what we can add to make that happen!

I may make a separate post with the area he's sore, I'm not sure what the name for the muscle is, and some of the other structures, but it's where his fermur is, and I think it's like a muscle that connects to the femur. He's sore on the outside of the leg for sure, and might be experiencing tightness on the inside. It's similar to his brother who has locking stifles and had the ligament cut, but it's not tight in the same exact place.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

So, I left off about 10 days ago. After the vet left I kept her bandage on for a week before it started to fall off. It looked ok underneath, but after seeing it I decided to only leave the bandage on for 5 days next time instead of 7, and maybe even as little as 4. 

So the bandage was replaced on the 23rd, and that one fell off yesterday, the 26th. I left that was a good amount of time, and you can really see the difference. 

He's been getting hand walks, first just down the barn isle, then around the barn. I took him out of the barn to graze and walk a few times. He was really good so I started timing it for 10 minutes. He walked fine in the little arenas and around checking stuff out. We did a couple days of doing the bridle path loop and he was still good. A few days ago I hopped on him and just walked around the little arena and he was good. I didn't have as much time yesterday so I just hand walked him. Today I should be able to hop on and walk around the arena again. I think by later this week I'll increase the walking from 10 to 15 to 20 minutes. It's good, but the bandages fall off easier when he's walking around...

I need to pick up more bandage supplies. We were using copa pads, cotton gauze, and elasticon. I ran out of the fancy stuff so I just threw a chunk of diaper on it and used vet wrap. I can either call the vet for more or I can just pick it up on my own. I may do a bit of each, as I need more ointment as well!

I also taught him smile, which is now a reliable trick for him. 

I suppose this is kinda the cross roads between his injury recovering and his starting to be ridden again. I was thinking his leg might have closed up by now, but probably need to not leave the bandage on so long for quicker recovery. Maybe another week with the bandage and I can get away with leaving it open!


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

That is looking really good! Poor boy.


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## Dragoon (Nov 25, 2013)

So gross! But amazing and loving doctoring!

I keep clicking on this thread hoping I never have to go through such an injury with horses! Its great that this owner sounds so upbeat and optimistic! The pessimist in me would be wondering if my horse will walk normally again...
I hope he's been a good patient!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

This is a bit more up beat!

His halter/saddle pad/bandage all match!

Planning to change this bandage out tomorrow! I think I have enough ointment for 1 more bandage then I need to call the vet, go without, or hopefully this plan will work...

Alushield is in the mail. It's an aluminum aerosol bandage that I've used before and quite enjoy the results from. Not sure about the chemicals and all, but it keeps it sealed up without a need for a bandage. I think it might be small enough that I can test out using the alushield on it. I'll put it on and hang out at the barn for a few hours and see what happens to know if I need to put a real bandage on or if I can get away with the alushield. 

His bandage sores are just hitting the limit here for me so in my mind this might solve both problems.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

@Dragoon

Even with the injury he hasn't taken a bad step! Everyone was astonished that he came out of the field looking totally fine until they noticed the knee. There are small tendons and ligaments that got torn and severed, but all the major stuff is intact! He has been walking out soundly in his hand walks, and with my weight. 15 minutes walking with the bareback pad today. 

He has been a good patient!
He has had exactly 2 bucks hand walking, one on the bridle path a few moments after passing some other horses, and once in the arena he had a few hops, but he wasn't trying to escape or run! When I'm riding him with the bareback pad he is totally awesome. 

I have been unfortunate in having a similar injury with my previous horse, another horse I bought with an injury but of a different type, and have seen others... They are quite fragile and resilient!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

So as far as the wound goes, it's closing, it's just slow. I guess my wishful thinking did not pay off... It's gonna be 2-3 weeks I think until it's closed up to just be a scab I don't have to think about. Hoping this closes enough that I can get away with leaving the bandage off soon.. his leg is seeing the fatigue. I tested out the alushield and it was ok, but the wound is still too large for it to work completely. I may need to get more ointment for it. 

I was doing some research, and I think that it's possible the tenderness in his back left leg is from some of the other bones back in there, maybe the ischium... who knows, it's a big broad area, but nonetheless he hasn't been so sore back there since his fall, so it's getting better. I just hope that with his soreness there before this doesn't compound too much. Plus you can't xray back there so much, so it's just palpation and stretching to figure out what's going on. I think if I knew more about all the little ligaments and stuff in the hind end I might be able to figure out what's going on back there better. The vet never seemed concerned. 

I did trim his feet, and took some pictures, but they aren't great pictures, so I don't think I will post them yet... I need to get some additional pics I think. I also put some Durasole on. I feel like I need to trim the hoof wall down to the sole or else it distorts too much. Then if he goes over a rock the wrong way it hurts! Maybe the Durasole is the solution, maybe hoof boots for a few days after, or a more gradual trim in the future. I think I may have gotten most of that cracking off the front of the wall, which means I might be looking at all vitamin enhanced hoof from here on out... More pics will tell. His hind heels have been closing in which isn't great, but what should I expect with standing in a stall for a month. At least now he is up to going out for 20 minutes a day. 

I walked him a bit by hand yesterday as my gear went missing. He started breathing heavily after about 20 minutes, so I think I know where the edge of his fitness is. The gear was returned! I will hop on today and walk him around. I am leaving for a couple days this weekend so I think he's going to get checked on and maybe walked too. I'm going to start walking him in a frame a bit and up some little hills. 

Looking into going to a hunter classic in a few months. It's a higher rated show (B), and we would be gone overnight for a few nights. I think it would be fun and good for Diablo to go, so I'll just have to see where he's at when it gets closer. I'll probably go anyway to help out there even if he doesn't. I think by that time he should be good for at least walk trot over poles, crossrails, maybe he'll even be starting to canter some stuff again. Who knows! I do want to spend more time at the walk and trot before building up to cantering again. I def. skipped a lot of the concrete understanding in some elements when I was riding him before. At least I can work on a lot of stuff at the walk even with his injury.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

On Friday I didn't like how the bandage looked... well the bandage was fine but the leg wasn't. I got a new vet wrap, which may be less stretchy than what I'm used to using. I took the vet wrap off and reapplied it looser. His leg had an edema above the knee, above the bandage, and it was tender. I didn't walk him because it still seemed painful. I decided to give him bute. 

Friday I left to go visit my friends and family for the weekend. Diablo was looked after so I figured he was fine and if anything his leg would still be swollen. 

I got back today and it was still swollen with edema, but not in any crazy sorta way. I took the old bandage off and noticed that some of the cotton from the under part of the bandage had slipped and bunched up, which I suspect could be the cause. 

I walked him a teeny bit, then iced him for 20 minutes. After I brought him back up, cleaned it off, and put more alushield on, which I don't think was the problem with the swelling. Then I threw a standing wrap on. It's a little taller than his size, because I like the top and bottom to poke out and cover/protect his knee and pastern. So he's just wearing that over his leg right now. 

I decided he was probably miserable enough while I was gone that I should give him 2g of bute tonight. I think I can knock the swelling down and keep it down by the end of the day tomorrow/the next day. Tomorrow I'm going to walk, ice, treat, wrap him around all 4's and maybe with liniment. Going to see how it is to decide on bute or not tomorrow. I'll also give him a full massage. 

Overall I'm going to just try this standing wrap bandage since I really don't have another option I can see at this point. Using the wrap on his opposing knee worked well to keep it protected and covered a bit while it dried up and scabbed. 

One pic is the front and the one on the back looks bad, but I don't think it's too bad, it's just oozing a lot and needs to dry out asap. I probably should have quit with the bandage stuff a few days ago but I was worried being gone so I didn't! I hope I don't have a price to pay. He is soundish but tender because his leg is all sore and swollen as it is! I hope some fluid dissipates tonight!!!


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## Dragoon (Nov 25, 2013)

Poor guy, his leg looks like a balloon! All that swelling is from the bandages? Ugh. 
You have so many decisions to make...if only for a crystal ball to see what the best course of treatment would be!
I googled what proud flesh was, and holy smackers! What a horrible complication for horses with leg injuries. No wonder you are working hard to avoid it. Thanks to this thread, I'll know to flush, flush, flush any leg injuries if they happen!

Best of luck to you and xDiablo!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

So today I wasn't too happy with how the leg looked, but felt by the time for the day I left it was in comfortable territory. With that I'm going to change my plan tomorrow to make it even better. 

First I took off the bandage I had loaned to me and it was SOAKING WET, kinda pink in some areas. 

I didn't like that the thing was still swollen after 2g of bute and a standing bandage... time to take out the big guns I guess. 

I took him over and cold hosed him for 15 minutes and got the gunk rinsed off. He liked that. I felt the cold hose brought down the edema oh so slightly. 

After that I left him in the stall without the bandage on and rode my friends horse which was really awesome and I might have to come back to that later... so Diablo "stood" in the stall for about an hour. While we were getting the other horse ready to ride, Diablo was running around rearing, bucking, squealing, in his stall... Probably the bute, which is fine. He was also moving himself a bit which I thought was good for him as well. 

After riding, about an hour, I looked at Diablo and his leg was less swollen, to the point where now other people might notice it looking better too, so I had some look and they agreed it had gone down a bit. I took him out for a hand walk for about 15 minutes and I did let him trot a little with me. He's not lame at all, which is great, but he can't walk evenly due to the pressure above his knee making it hard to bend. This time it wasn't oozing a bunch like yesterday while he walked. 

Over the course of the walk the swelling went down a lot, which I was really happy with. But we weren't done yet, I didn't like how this ugly leg looked so I brought out the big guns... remember?

30 minutes after the walk he got another cold hose for 20 minutes, then after that I applied an ice wrap for 20 minutes. 

I gave him his supplements but I didn't give him bute tonight, because I really wasn't sure if it helped or not. While he ate that I scratched him, then massaged him then groomed him. I put a new standing wrap on after that, I'll see tomorrow if it's really wet or not. If it is and if it's gone back to bloated then the vet gets called to come out ASAP in the event that this is something much more serious. I did email the vet office to ask her schedule. On the other hand maybe I return and it continues to get better with what were already doing. 

It's one of those things where I had to be out of town and he had to have this issue at the same time. Sad that it had to brew for a few days while I was gone, but I think I need to give it tomorrow before deciding which way to go with the vet. Even if the swelling returns, if I can get it down to the size it was when I left or smaller by the end of the day tomorrow then I will be in good territory with this. If the swelling stays at bay then we're both fine. 

So that brings me to the plan, which is to go there 1st thing in the morning, unwrap, assess, hand walk, hose, bute? vet? rewrap?. Check on my other horse, then come back to Diablo after for another round of unwrap?, assess, hand walk, hose, ice, stall rest, repeat the hand walking cold ice stuff, rewrap for the night with a decision on a vet. 

Probably also not helping us that it's been in the mid 90's...

Pics are from after the hand walk, but before the hose and ice... idea tomorrow is to take pics throughout the day to see the change a bit more. His leg looked almost normal by the time I left...


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## Dragoon (Nov 25, 2013)

That looks amazingly good!


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Good day yesterday. 

When I arrived it was a little more swollen than when I left the night before but only very subtle. 

I walked him and hosed him in the morning, but I decided no ice needed. The edema went down really easily. 
At the end of the morning walk Diablo was feeling good... I wanted to let him trot just a few steps in hand, but he said he felt too good! Instead of trotting he stopped, gave a few huge bucks (both feet over the head and out) right in place, then just stood there and looked happy about it. I can't really get mad at him for it, because I don't feel he did anything really bad. In fact I want him to have a chance to get it out so I let him buck 6 more times and sorta 'trained' him that he could buck if he stood in place and than when he tried to buck and run that was a no go. 

Left and returned a few hours later for round 2. His leg was almost normal out of the wrap this time, just a little swelling right above the knee that still hadn't resolved, but you could start to see the contour of his leg again. We walked down to help set a course. Diablo was pretty good, but kinda excited to see everyone setting the jumps. Then the vet drove in the driveway so I left to go see her. On the way out of the arena Diablo decided he wanted to rear, so same thing like with the bucking... He needs to get it out, but the rearing is also sorta like not the best thing to do... He did a couple then I told him no more! We saw the vet and she agreed it looked like the back part had gotten reinfected but not severely (no temp), and that it was already starting to clear out. She wanted to put him back on the antibiotics for another week so that's what it'll be! I think that will solve the issue, even though it was already looking really good today. He got another cold hose then and went in his stall for a rest. 

After that I went out with the riders so help them as they jumped. One of the little horses/ponies did a great job!

Upon returning from that Diablo went on one final short walk for the day, I skipped the final hose off so he would be dry, and I applied an antibiotic direct to the wound, applied the standing wrap, and gave him the oral antibiotics. 

After that I just had a nice time hanging out at the barn until I was sure all the antibiotics were eaten! Oh and I took these last pictures before I left.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

It definitely looks like it is healing.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Ok, I'm going to make a timeline here to help me sort this out. 

7/27 Changed bandage and wound was nice, flat, and starting to dry. 

8/2 Commented that the healing had slowed and that it was going to be a few more weeks. Changed bandage due to leg seeming irritated from bandage sore. Applied alushield to front of leg during hand walk. Cleaned and re-bandaged area. Went out of town. 

8/5 Returned late to check, noticed leg extremely swollen up to the elbow, but not swollen below the knee. Due to swelling and irritation used a tall standing wrap to cover the wound, and applied alushield to front of leg to protect wound as extra cover. Gave bute. 

8/6 Standing bandage extremely wet all from sore on back of leg. Concerned about swelling, however wound on front on knee looked fine so walked, cold hosed, and iced to reduce swelling on leg. Left leg unwrapped to dry between walking. Applied standing wrap same as night before. 

8/7 Bandage less wet. Temp of 99.5 at 9:50am. Walked in morning, but did not hose or ice. Swelling down in leg except around knee bone prominence. Rearing/Bucking(not normal). Ran into vet on 2nd hand walk to get antibiotics and pills to apply directly to wound. Got gauze rolls. Left unwrapped between walks but no drainage. Hand walked once more before applying medication and gauze roll lightly to knee area with standing wrap over sticking up over knee to protect. Antibiotics PM. 

8/8 Antibiotics AM. Leg still less swollen but still some around knee area, some definition in knee bone prominence. Decided if that swelling wasn't gone an AM hand walk wouldn't help. Returned in afternoon to unwrap and walk. Diablo kicked me on walk (not normal). Antibiotics PM. Swelling mostly gone. Re-wrapped for night with medication and gauze lightly rolled with standing bandage covering knee. Front of knee still dry and a little proud flesh. 

8/9 Antibiotics AM. Left wrap on in morning to keep it covered between then and afternoon return. Took on short hand walk. Returned PM, removed bandage soaked in blood and fluid. Left unwrapped and cleaned with dilute betadine, photographed. Examined opening on front wound, skin detached above, some black areas. Swelling down in leg where it was previously still sitting. Tried calling vet office for advice kept getting put on hold, gave up, thought about what to do on my own and asked others. Decided to hand walk more to reduce swelling, covered with wonder dust to keep flies off. More fluid, blood, leg guts, and white foam seeping out. Medial side bony prominence becomes evident as leg drains on walk. Hose leg after walk and clean with betadine. Still pocket of swelling on lateral side between front and rear wound that hasn't come out. Let leg dry, listen to voicemail from vet office. Wrap leg with medication and cotton gauze like before and apply standing bandage over knee to immobilize. I used vet wrap over my pillow wrap, and cut a small slit out the back so his leg bends slightly. Antibiotics PM. 

For tomorrow, Antibiotics AM, ride horses, change bandage with fresh antibiotics applied and fresh standing wrap, assess for potential hand walking. If it's draining and doesn't look like it's ripping away more then I will walk him a bit to encourage it to come out. 

Long term, continue antibiotics until infection is resolved, keep pillow pressure bandage applied until fissure closes up and wound stops draining, returning to being flat and dry. 
Vet will be out next week sometime. Still within my comfort realm even with it busting open, but started to break down a bit today myself with the hazzle of getting a hold of the scheduler at the vet office. Worse than blood and guts. 

My question to everyone...

Do you think it was good or bad that it busted open?

Trying to stay positive here, better out than in with that infection ooze, I bet once it flushes out completely that the wound closes up nice! Might be an opportunity to remove some proud flesh too.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

My advice will combine what I remember from my mare's knee injuries and what the vet told me then, along with what I would say from being a nurse.

Something I am positive about is that the wound will have to heal from the inside out. That means new tissue granulation will have to begin in the deepest part and slowly fill in that gap. Even if the vet stitched it together, which is not possible at this point because there is no external skin/epidermis that can be pulled together, that process would still apply. So in my opinion it pulling apart was just a symptom of there being no viable epidermis covering the wound yet. 

That very thin line around the edges is the new growth. Unfortunately, my vet told me that a horse can only grow about a pencil lead width (and I can't remember for sure if she said "per day," but I think she said "per week"), so you will still have quite a long time to cover all of that open area with epidermis. That skin cannot easily grow uphill, so if there is any lump of tissue/proud flesh forming in the middle area and especially near the edge, I would ask the vet to come and cut it off. 

One thing I know is very important: after the initial wound cleaning when the leg is first injured, it is important NOT to use betadine, iodine, or any type of cleaner harsher than diluted soap and water or saline on the wound. Even though we think we should keep a wound clean, they have discovered that those cleaners will kill off new skin buds that are forming and will delay wound healing. Even plain water is better than any type of betadine. 

I can't tell from the photos if there is any black or necrotic tissue in the wound. If there is, the vet should definitely debride that off of the wound. That is also something that can be caused by using chemicals on the wound, and it will have to be cut down to where there are blood vessels so living tissue can grow. 
It is important to prevent infection with antibiotics, but it is very important also to have viable tissue growing in with a good blood supply.

Not sure if I made this clear, but the wound will have to #1 fill in with tissue up to the surface, but #2 also the top layer of skin will have to grow in all around the sides until it finally meets in the middle. That can be a long process.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Granulation tissue or new skin buds look like small, round pink dots in the wound.
I don't know if this is too much information, but these videos are pretty great to show the wound healing process.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

It was similar with my first horse too. I was talking with my mom about it, he took 3 months to heal. He used wonder dust, this vet is a little different I think. 

I don't think stitching works with the motion over the joint very well either. 

I noticed the skin growth stop a bit around when I suspect the infection started. 
I think it separated in part due to drainage from above, it just took the path of least resistance. 

Skin is just going to have to keep creeping upward here for now.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Yesterday... I left the bandage on in the morning, as I was too tired to wake up for giving the medicine and picking up bandage materials, especially after freaking out in silence the day before. So just antibiotics for the morning. 

I left to get supplies and see Dodge. I bought all the flex cling cotton rolls I could. I bought 'sponge gauze' basically just the high absorbency stuff instead of medium or light absorbency. Ok, I didn't know that was a thing, I thought gauze was gauze...

Dodge was really good which has been keeping me on the plus side through this again. 

Went back to the barn and unwrapped the bandage...

Did not look good. Swollen all over the place, above the knee, below the knee where it previously hadn't been before, super tender to the touch, all bad. Too many people had given advice on Friday it hurt my brain, I strategically planned this bandage change for when no one would be there but me and I could think clearly. 

I cleaned it off with damp gauze (I only clean off wounds with betadine if they have been in contact with manure, or the outside world, otherwise if I'm using it it's on the hair around it not directly on it, just to keep the site clean from fluids and dead stuff). I applied the paste of crushed pills to the sponge gauzes and applied them to the wounds with the cotton flex cling gauze really really loosely. It was just clinging on basically. This way if he went swoll in the leg again it would allow for it. I put a foam (no bow style) standing wrap over the knee and vet wrapped it on. I cut a pressure release in the back of the knee. This was what I did before but swelling crept down into his lower leg, which I can't deal with right now, so I stacked another bandage over it to keep pressure on the lower part of his leg as well. Also keeps that knee bandage up. 

Here's the pictures from yesterday.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

So today isn't over yet, but this morning I did things differently. 

I went for antibiotics, and saw the chiropractor with lasers. I was able to use the laser while he used a different one with another animal there. I also scheduled him for next week to do it again!

I had to take the bandage off for the laser, so I got to peek in and I like how it looks. More black old blood is coming out and some serum type fluid. Not as much as before but a good amount. 

Back down to 95% gone on the swelling! He still has this one pocket above his knee bone on the outside part of the leg that the chiro was poking at. That's where it still hasn't resolved. 

I like that the swelling was gone from the lower leg. I liked that the swelling was back to being gone from the inner knee part (like it was on Friday after my phone died!). I liked that it was still draining, because I want all the crap out, even though I know excessive draining isn't good. Maybe another day or two will be good for it, and I think it's going to be back to looking pretty good after this week detour. 

Hope the vet comes out on Monday or Tuesday and has panalog to start putting on it again. It will get back to flat and close again no problem, then we will laser it. The vet wrap with the pillow underneath and then another wrap over that is fine with me. It's when we start getting into the single use cotton rolls with gauze and vet wrap on top of gauze and elasticon/vet wrap... too much on there. Pillow wraps are comfortable and washable with bleach. 

Pictures this morning before lasering. Afternoon is just meds.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I think Diablos leg has turned the corer again. 

It's not amazing, but it's slowed down draining, and in general looks to be closing up again. Not sure if that was because it just is, or if the laser had anything to do with it. 

When I put the standing wraps on it makes it easy to take him on hand walks, which aren't opening up his wound anymore so I don't think it's bad to hand walk him at this point. 

For me there's a question of stopping the antibiotics or not. The wound wouldn't close if it was still infected, so should I stop them or give it a few more days? Tomorrow will be 7 days. I could go 10 days to be safe, but anything more than that will be trouble with school starting on Monday. 

The vet isn't able to come out till Thursday, at which point, it's not an emergency, and I can't really afford anything more so I might skip the vet visit. I just need the panalog ointment, so I'm going to give it a try putting in an order for it online and see what happens.

It's not the prettiest thing, but the swelling is gone and the drainage is low again. New proud flesh is growing in behind it, I just need to keep it covered for a little while longer.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Aug 15th/16th


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Aug 24th


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Aug 28th


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Sept 1st - 4th

Over labor day weekend I had some visitors. 

I noticed Diablo was showing some favoring over keeping his injured leg in front of the other. 
(He still is, but working with him more to stop that from progressing)


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

All the way to Sept 19th...

I took the bandage off on the 15th. It's been dry since then. It's healing slower but it's easier for me to take care of so it's best. He was also starting to actually bite the bandage to take it off.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

I have more pictures of this leg I can share, but it's pretty much better now. It's still an open wound, but about the size of a nickle or penny now. I've been able to ride him and turn him out and he's totally sound. 

October was ultra rough on me. Work was rough, my social life was rough, financially strapped, lucky if I had time to eat dinner at the end of the day all month. There were some days I didn't want to go see the horses because of social anxiety of being around my friends at the barn and being worried they would ask me how I was doing. I was really not doing well and also didn't want to tell them that, but was also getting help. I lost 15 lbs that month. My car got broken into and was robbed of a few items. Somehow that all kept rolling past and I found myself with my friends on Halloween having a great time. November came and things have been staying better. I do need more companionship in my life too. 

I've come to understand that I really don't do well with not knowing things, then feeling blame for not knowing the thing I needed to know. I'm not sure how people overcome this either, if you have any strategies I'd love to hear it. I'm also not okay with hidden expectations, but I already knew that about myself. Still some people I work with seem to enjoy keeping things a mystery or changing their mind on the fly to keep you guessing. 

As the month went on we went without power, were plagued with poor air (though not as bad as last year), and there were still a tremendous amount of local fires. I decided to evacuate Dodge at one point because the fire was about 3 miles away and I didn't know if we would be able to get him out or not. I watched from my kitchen window and knew if I didn't call and get on the freeway immediately I wouldn't be able to at all. Later that day after the evac there was another fire 3 miles from him in the other direction. I was already going through the ringer myself then this just added onto things. He got moved to where Diablo is and he was ok there for a while. 

Eventually I knew I would need to move him back or figure out how to keep him at the barn with Diablo. So I think that's what's going on now, is that I will be paying a bit more, buying myself some time mainly, and keeping both horses at the closer location. Some things haven't worked out as expected, but it's ok, and not going to worry about that too much. I'll save 15 hours a month in commuting from one barn to the other, and about $60 in gas. The cost difference is $200. Fine, it's $$$ I have and I can buy myself back some time and convenience, but there's nothing left but pennies now. 

I guess it's part of the price I pay to help keep myself healthy. I don't need to worry about Dodge escaping, and I moved Diablo so they are in stalls next to each other now. I can't afford shavings, so they don't get any bedding. I'm worried they will get sores. Dodge already has some bad ones. He ate the bell boots that might have helped him. No leftovers to be found...

Diablo is learning to walk to the arena in the dark, and also going to start trotting more and cantering more in the big arena. He's being really good about everything. I'm glad it's done and that he's sound and moving well, his leg might look more normal with more work too. 

Meanwhile I need to figure out what to do with these shavings I bought that I apparently can't use at the barn! I guess I'll see if I can return them  Maybe I'll get straw instead.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

I got off light, there was just one day that I was ready to evacuate, and the winds that were driving the fire also, the next day, blew off all the smoke and ash. 

As for strategies, the only answer is to know yourself. If you are aware of how you will react, you can more easily deflect anyone coming at you. This is something everybody goes through, (excepting those who are in some way unbalanced) and it may be that the way they are coming at you is their way of deflecting. Keep yourself front and center. You need to work to support yourself. Make yourself useful to the company you are working for, the rest will fall into place.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Sorry to hear you have been having such a tough time. 

I used to feel guilty about things I didn't know and probably should have. My job involves everyone critiquing and criticizing everyone else. A few years ago I realized there was no way for me to know things that I hadn't learned yet! How silly. How can you know something you haven't been taught? I think when we are younger we feel responsible for knowing things, but life isn't school with a passing grade - we'll be learning new things our whole lives.
So I developed a new strategy, where I say very openly, "I don't know," or "I didn't know that." People seem to respond well to this. I mean, what can they say...why don't you know this? I watch other people struggle to pretend they know things they don't, when it's very easy to say "I don't know." But I do follow that up with "I need to look that up," or "Can you tell (or show) me?"
This is just what works for me. :smile:


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Update here,

First the horses. Overall everything with them is really good. Dodge has lost the last of his fat pads on the low starch hay and hasn't had any issues with runny poops. His feet have been really good as well. I've definitely got his trim down and know what works for him. He looks better than I've ever seen him. In our 3rd year together the care I've put in is visible. I've decided to not really ride him anymore. I think he has vision problems and I don't think it's safe. I may poke around every now and then but not going to expect anything from him. 
Diablo is doing well too. I hadn't been riding at all over the winter. He just got turned out and took some time to rest in the stall. Had a little issue with scratches and with him kicking the stall bars. He has a bruise on his leg that's sticking out and looks bad. He's totally sound and I've had time to ride him a little this past week. He's didn't skip a beat. 

For me things have been interesting. The school district mismanaged their budget and had to layoff 200+ teachers. I didn't even get to make it to the layoffs because my principal decided to get rid of me before they could pink slip me. I work till the end of this year then I gotta find a new job in a different district. Thankfully I'm pretty qualified and most people (except the principal for some reason) really like me and I've already had a lot of potential employers ask me to apply so they can hire me. I'll get a job for next school year without an issue and may move, but shouldn't have to move the horses since they are central in the part of the bay I'm in. 
My economic situation has picked up too as I managed to get a roommate. I went from feeling really unhealthy in the fall to feeling back in command again. 

Everything's good amidst the present chaos.


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