Bestie, hangin' at the gate

Barn friend Michelle is back in town for a bit, called in as back-up while our barn owners enjoy a vacation. Michelle was taking lessons at the barn when I first moved Dude and Bestie there. She is bubbly and talkative and a lot of fun. She now lives in Hawaii, and when she comes back to town she brings tons of goodies - so far we've enjoyed coffee covered macadamia nuts, macadamia caramel clusters, guava cookies, wasabi peas, macadamia caramel popcorn ... a different wonderful treat magically appears on the tack room table each day! Michelle seems to really enjoy the horses and their personalities, and snapped this pic of Bestie during the work day; I'm not sure if Bestie was at the gate to keep tabs on the comings and goings or because it was turn-in time. She does sorta have that "Hellooooo, The Princess wants to come in" look.

Dude gets rechecked

Yesterday Dr. Kim of Animal Health Options came back to town to make her rounds and she rechecked Dude. I trotted him out for her and although he was still off on the right rear she felt he was definitely moving better and he looked pretty good. She also used her thermal camera to look at all the same areas she checked the first time, and while there was still heat in his right hind, it wasn't nearly as bad as when she was first out. There was also some heat showing in his left hind from compensation.

Following the original plan, Dude still has another month on solo turnout, and then I guess we'll check him again. Kim said she'd recommend some herbs if it seemed like he was going to go out with his buddies and mess around; something to take the edge off, presumably. She also recommended that I do some core work with him to strengthen him for when he does go out and return to work, for stabilization and better management of his body. He's long backed and heavy and not the most agile of horses, so core work I'm sure would be beneficial (maybe Dude and I both can go on a program!). The book she recommended is "Activate your horse's core" by Narelle Stubbs and Hilary Clayton. I like the fact that it's a book/dvd set and there are a few good reviews on Amazon, but with a $54 price tag I'm going to have put that purchase off for a couple weeks.

He was chiropracted ... with much unnecessary drama just because he is a big baby. As with shots, he basically reacts to the vet's approach and then relaxes when he's actually being treated.

I had taken Dude off bute a  bit over a week ago because he seemed to be getting cranky with me when I curried his stomach, and I thought he might be bothered by the bute. He's been on a dose every other day since July, so it's been a long course. Now he's just on the  Horsetech OptiMSM and Glanzen GL (lite), vitamin E, Equilite's probiotics, and rice bran.

Fingers crossed that he continues to make progress.

Rain rain go away

We've had a stretch of wet weather. The horses lost one day of turnout last week, but it's been raining so much over the last couple days that the fields are a mess and they'll be staying in tomorrow. Last night I arrived to find mud caked horses. I love how they look at me, filthy yet all perky, like "What?"

Dude is usually just muddy on one side since he doesn't roll from side to side and rarely drops twice to hit both sides. Bestie, on the other hand ...

This is what was left on the barn aisle floor after I groomed them tonight - a nice grey dust circle and bunches of mud and gravel from their hooves. Nice dark circle in the middle where they were standing and blocking the flying dust!