Lucas is feeling much better. Took him out for a walk and a stretch tonight and practiced some showmanship basics, for about 15 minutes then turned him loose and made him trot a few steps in each direction. This is when our groundwork and body positioning comes into play. I got him to trot one long side each direction, with his right side to the middle he was fairly sound, only slight head bobbing, no noticeable short striding on either leg. Going to the left he was bobbing his head more but only a slight shorting of stride on the left front. I also found a decent hole in his left front frog. I noticed that there was a flap of skin there yesterday but today there was a hole. I was able to clean it our and flush it with iodine. It might not be the exact issue but it wasn't helping him. The right hoof is still slightly warmer as well.
Our 'showmanship' work consisted of setting up about 10 cones around the ring and walking around them, by them, sometimes stopping next to them. Not nessacarly doing 'something' at every cone, but often enough that he was tuning into me in anticipation that we just might do something at the next cone. I like to have him in a 'ready' state of mind, so that hes not zoning out and going thought the motions, which he does if he thinks he knows the pattern. I'm trying to keep his mind active so that we wont have a repeat of Friday night!
3 comments:
Sounds like it might very well have been an abscess - that would be good news.
Yes hopefully that will be the end of it! And it was you mentioning it that rang the bell in my head. So thank you!
Hope Lucas continues to improve!
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