Back in the saddle/rasp again

I rode yesterday, for the first time since I had Peanut's girth backwards and gave him the boo-boos behind his elbows. It's been ages.

It didn't go too well, because the Stifle Lock Fairy has been making her rounds. Peanut's stifle hasn't been giving him such problems in ages - at least I hope it's his stifle... at least it's a known issue. Since I haven't ridden much this summer due to the heat, business trip, and the Lasik, we are both horribly out of shape.

We had a horrible time going up hills (typical of his stifle when it does act up), and he was tripping his way around the place.

My riding was rusty as hell, too, and I was leaning heavily into my right stirrup which made my entire saddle repeatedly shift to the right. Being the trooper that he is, Peanut didn't complain. However, in an attempt to correct my riding style, I started shifting around to the point where it felt like my hips popped out. I tried shifting some more to make them go away - it's worked before after all - but no dice so I just dismounted and walked (limped) out.

When I got the saddle off, I found his back sore towards the loins. I strongly massaged him on each side of the spine, finding a large bug bite prodtruding upwards right beside the spine, and he really enjoyed it. When done, I ran my nails down his back again and there was no reaction whatsoever. Hmmm.

Well, seems that we desperately need both Denise back out for my shoddy riding and Hoppy out for Peanut's shoddy joints.

Today, I was unsure if Dawn was coming out (whoops, lost the card with the date), so we had the horses together and ready for a trim. Their feet looked horrible - all torn up and cracked, despite being trimmed at the end of last month. Dawn says it's the wet weather keeping the sugar high in the grass, but I still wonder about the nutritional content of their pasture. Must. Test. One. Day.

As time ticked on and I got ticked off at his raggedy toes, I pulled out the hoof stand, rasp, knee pads, and gloves. Yes, I trimmed Peanut. Mon dieu. It's been a couple of years since I seriously applied rasp to hoof, but it went more easily than ever before, and I was done pretty quickly. Well, I did take breaks to wipe off the sweat from my brow (yay for trimming in the sun! Yay for trimming in fogged up sunglasses that were protecting my poor peepers!), but all-in-all it went well. Granted, there really wasn't any growth to speak of, but I did a lot of roll maintenance and evened up the heels in front. I didn't even up the ones in back because I was having trouble sighting them through my sunglasses and figured they were best left alone.

I must say that his feet looked smashing when I was done.

Peanut did protest heartily to having his right front trimmed, as he wasn't too keen about supporting weight on his right hind - the one that was locking. He must be sore.

We did get through it, and he got a lot of treats because for the most part he was so good. He didn't seem to mind, because he kept dropping. As I was trimming the top of his left hind (which he didn't protest over... interesting), I kept bumping my elbow into his wang. Well, I take that as a compliment.

Of course, I am now paranoid. I scared myself off of trimming since Peanut was abscess-central until Dawn's first trim, was fine for years, and then I started trimming him and the abscesses came back. Dawn tried to reassure me that it wasn't my trim, sometimes these things happen (but never under her watch until Peanut), and that I was doing fine. I gave up anyway. Of course, once Dawn took over again he was fine and dandy. Hmph. I can take a hint.

We'll see how he does, and what Dawn has to say next Sunday.

Afterwards, I was not going to ride, but I did take him for a walk in Fair Hill. There is one small but steep hill covered with rocks that is close to the trail head, and Peanut basically 3-legged up it. Bother. We got out to the first field, and I let him graze while I considered my options.

I didn't want there to be any more locking, but I also wanted to get his leg moving so that it would stretch out. I decided to stay on the grassy areas which are full of rolling hills, and distract him with grazing.

He had a grand ol' time, and was perfectly fine on the hills on the grass.

I do not want to think that he is having a pain reaction in his feet causing him to look like he stifle locked (although there is an odd area in his whiteline on that foot that I wanted to talk to Dawn about), so I wonder if he steps a little differently on rough uphill terrain vs smooth, which would then make him lock. He has gone on these trails many, many times without such reactions, and the only difference is that I haven't been riding and that weird spot on the bottom of his foot. I've been told many times by many people that the key to keeping his stifles in line is hill work that will build up that vast, golden butt of his. During the dark ages of his trims, I've seen worse things develop on the bottom of his feet, so I don't know how much credit to give what I'm suddenly seeing there.

This is also the hind foot that will track towards the middle of his body, instead of in line with the front, until Hoppy works on him and it falls back into line.

I don't know. I need my pros.

Rick also had a monumental day, as he picked up a rasp again and started in on Gene's feet. He didn't do much, but they looked like a million bucks when he was done. :)