Back At It....

Getting his head scratched before his workout

Danny had several days  off from his work out routine, while I was out of town and then getting caught back up on household chores and work. The few times I did work with him was so short and sweet it wasn't even really worth mentioning.  I hate that it works out that way sometimes, and I am really concerned with how we are going to work this out through the winter.  I guess I could take him down to the indoor arena a few times a week for a quick workout.

Anyway, we got some good stuff done with the
new additions to the stretching techniques I talked about in my last post and as promised I got some better pictures as well.

Notice how much higher I am bringing this hind leg up than I
was originally.

I have found that if I don't bring him to the round pen he really doesn't stay focused and is worried more about getting over to the feed shed where his yummy treats are kept. 

I got some very good stretching out of him yesterday.  He really does seem to enjoy it.











There are 2 things I want to point out about this picture.  First, notice how I am able to just drop the lead rope and he stands patiently while we do the stretching. He is such a good boy!   Second, it appears as though I am pulling with all my weight but I am not.  I am really just getting his leg up, he does the stretching after that.  It is not generally the case with his stringhalt leg(the white foot is the bad one) except once he was able to stretch it on his own.

This set of pictures is of me backing him in a circle around the round pen. We went this direction first and then did some forward motion and then backed in the other direction.  I could tell that he has a harder time backing with his stringhalt foot to the inside.  Therefor we will start with that next time and see if we can't get better on that side.

That is the update I have for now.  I don't know if I have mentioned this before but I changed his feed from Strategy GX to Purina Equine Senior.  It has more vitamin E in it, and saves from having to add a supplement.