Not much to tell right now

Since my page is blank I figured I could at least give a little update.

I cannot tell for sure if Danny is a little swollen since our last ride.  It is harder for me to tell in the winter when they all have thick hair on their legs.  Some days I look and they all look swollen, but when I feel with my hands, no one has heat and they feel normal sized.   I have a tendency to be a little paranoid.

I found that Danny has scratched the scab off where he had his gash last summer. It was bleeding a little, not bad though. I will throw some Natures Edge on it to help it close back up again.

It is cool to watch him on the mornings I let him out.  He runs and runs all over the pasture. He seems so happy.  He and Trax are best of buds.  They share food, and if Danny runs, Trax follows.

The last time all the horses were out together I was impressed by what happened.  Sassy came up to say hello to her old friend Danny, then Killian saw them and had to get in between.  Then of course the "fight" started and Killian chased Danny away.  Trax was off to the side, but when he saw what was going on he ran over and put himself between Killian and Danny.  He went to protect him.  He stayed with Danny from there on out.  Trax is an odd character.  He could care less about mares, he will not start a fight.  If another horse gets crappy with him, he just moves away. He pretty much gets along with anyone.   So to see him put himself in a position where confrontation was likely was unusual.  But he and Danny are pretty good friends.  Where Danny goes, Trax will follow, almost always. 

I think all the horses are tired of Killian's bullying. Even Sassy seems eager to get away to say hi to the others.  I wish it would go back to where they all just got along.

Arena Ride #......

Well it would have been arena ride # 2 but I chose not to take Danny down on Sunday.

When I went out to get him, his stringhalt leg seemed to be just a tad swollen. There is no heat and he seems to be putting weight on it just fine, but if he strained it when he landed toe down with me on him, then I want to give it time to rest.

Of course I will say that no sooner did I remove the halter and turn him loose, but he proceeded to race around the pasture as fast as he could go.  Not once or twice but about ten times.  So I am guessing he is feeling ok.

I actually have two days I can ride this weekend, so I'm thinking he will go again, but this time while I am on him we will keep it at a trot.  No since pushing it.

Arena Session #1

Danny had his first arena session, since we started his rehab, on Sunday the 25th of Nov.  I really have not done much with him since the last post except for some exercising and stretching when I could. But I have seen him more active lately, with some running around the pasture, which I take as a pretty good sign. 

When we got to the arena he was pretty excited by the new surroundings, but quickly got right down to work.  We did the stretching first, and it was easy to tell when he was done in the back because he would hit me in the face with his tail!  Silly old man! 

We walked, trotted and cantered in circle doing several circles of each at the end of a long lead rope. Then we back in a big circle in both directions.  He still has more trouble on backing to the right, but he was able to do it.

After that we did another session of forward then another session of stretching , finishing up with the tail smack to the face again!

I put the snaffle on him, he did his best to NOT open for the bit, but finally relented.  I put the saddle on him and of course he stood still for me cinching him up and getting on him.

As soon as I asked him to move forward at a walk, he leaped and attempted to buck!  Danny doesn't buck real well, so I turned him around and then asked for the walk again.  He tried to take off again, but we did another circle and after that he went forward pretty nicely.  It took me a minute to get my "seat". Riding a horse with stringhalt is like riding a triangle, and it takes a little getting used to!

One lap at a walk, then a trot and then he really wanted to go so I let him canter.  I had to put an end to that when I felt him land toe down on that bad foot. But he did a full lap around the arena with me on his back at a canter, so that was pretty good.  We backed up about 10 feet, but for an old sway backed guy I knew that asking him to collect for that long with me on him was a lot. So we only did it once. 

I was so happy to have that nice soft dirt for him when he landed toe first, I could see the hole it made, but had he been on hard ground it could have been damaging. As near as I can tell it did not do any damage. There is no swelling or heat and he is walking normal on it.  Afterwards we did another lap at a walk to let him cool down as he was breathing pretty hard.  He even worked up a little bit of a sweat. 

I was not able to get any pictures of the work out, as I was the only one there.  But I really think he enjoyed himself once he realized that Trax was right there in the corner and he was not going to have to leave him.  Danny is extremely herd bound.  Of all my horses he is by far the worst.    All in all I think it was a good ride, and good for him.  With any luck we will get to go again next weekend.

No News is Not Always Good News

No news is good news, usually.

This time no news means no time.

No news means that my ponies are neglected. (not physically- just mentally)

No news means that I have had no saddle time in weeks.

No news means that Danny has not had his stretching exersizes and it shows.

No news is bad.

No news means I am a baaaaaad horse mom.

No news means there just aren't enough hours in the day.

No news means I have a sad face. :(

I could use some news, some time, some saddle time, some horsey time.

I found this pic of Danny today.  It was spring 2 years ago.  We had so much grass.  Now it is just a dirt lot, with some dead grass.  

I need some horse time.

Danny's Blanky

Poor old guy was having such a hard time with the cold, I decided to blanket him last night.  Normally I do not blanket until it starts hitting 10 or below. My horses are pretty hardy, they are all WY horses except Danny.   It made a difference, he was actually able to walk this morning.

This is an older picture- last winter, but he has had
this blanket since I got him- four years ago.
that make it a pretty good blanket to me

 

I love his blanket, bought it at Moss's Tack store in Mills WY. It was expensive but worth every penny. It fits him nicely , is sturdy as hell. It has a nice wide Belly Band so that he cannot get his foot caught in it. I wish I could recall what brand it is, because I would surely write them a letter and tell them what  great product they have.

When I went to put it on him, he gave me his..."seriously" look. Trax made a beeline for the other direction as if to say, "She is not making me wear that thing"  Of course when I fed this morning Danny rubbed his head on me in appreciation......or maybe he had an itch....Lets say it was in appreciation.  He was happy to be warm and happy to have food.

Tom wants to send him to AZ for the winter, I think he would rather be here and cold and stiff than to be all alone and depressed.  He gets really depressed without his herd.  We will see, I guess.

Old and Cold do not mix well

I went out this morning to feed all the ponies.  Everyone was racing around as it was only 29 degrees out.  Everyone except Danny that is. :(

I got his food and he would take a step, the stringhalt leg would go up and then not come back down.  He would finally try to hop on 3 legs to get a step forward.  It took him a long time to get to that feeder.  I wanted to take it to him, but I knew he had to get moving.  The only way to get warmed up is for him to move.  I did go over and rub his bad leg really briskly to try and get him warmed up.  He was showing stringhalt symptoms in his good leg too. 

I have to get that barn done and get him inside at night.  That way I can put a heat lamp in there with him so he doesn't get quite so cold.   If that doesn't help then he may have to go live at our house in AZ. I don't want to do that yet though.  As hard as it is for me to watch him go through this, I know that he would be terribly lonely out there, with the rest of his herd still in WY.

I am making the commitment to get as much done as I can this weekend.  It is supposed to snow, but it doesn't matter.  I can still spread dirt, set poles and maybe at least get one or two pens done.

I have to leave for KS next week for some stupid training program my company is putting on. I really don't have time to go, but have no choice.

Don't they know I have been eat 'Smarties" for a week now, by the handfuls!!!???!!!  Surely that has to work better than shipping me 2 states away for 4 days! :)

Well time to get back to work. ugh!

Quick Update

Due to too many things on my plate Danny is only getting his stretching and exercise about once a week.  BUT that once a week seems to make him really happy.  He really has been stretching his hind legs out for me and his energy level seems to be on it's way up again. 

He spends more time being active again (perhaps a weather thing) and his time in the round pen is nice with very few incidents of landing with his fetlock bent back and on his toe. Backing in circles gets better every time. 

I was watching him race around the pasture last week.  More like his old self than I have seen him in a long time.  I am seriously considering a short ride in the arena this weekend, when I take Trax down. 
Farrier was out yesterday and gave him a nice trim which he needed. 

I also have learned that we have a new lameness expert in town now.  I am always looking for new ideas and information, so once I get my finances back in line I will most likely have him come out and take a look and Danny the Wonder Horse, just to see if he has any suggestions on things I can do with him.

Jay and I were talking the other day, trying to imagine what his career was before he got the stringhalt.  Was he a jumper?  Maybe, he has the long tall body for it.  I don't think he was a barrel racer, or a roping horse.  He seems more like an english riding horse than a western.  Although he doesn't exhibit any sort of Dressage training.  Of course, how would I  know.  I certainly do not know how to ride Dressage. I'm just barely learning what leg cues are. :)
Perhaps he was just someones trail horse, the love of someones life. We will never know. All we know now is that he is Danny, sweet old boy of my pasture.  He has found his forever home.