Comments about all the Comments

I have had so many wonderful Comments on Sassy's feet, and tried to reply to them all, but computers don't like me, so I'm taking this quick second to thank you all.

"Picking her apart" was exactly what I needed.  I have discussed much of what was said with my vet, and our next course of action is a few more x-rays and a new exam of the LF to make sure we have eliminated the chipped coffin bone issue. It is important to know if we are dealing with one issue on two feet, two different issues on two different feet, or if she has one issue on two feet combined with the coffin bone issue on the LF. Then he wants to do a couple of x-rays down the navicular bone.   I'm not sure what his goal is, but I know what mine is.  Mine is to have a wheel barrel load of information when I take her to the NB farrier. My vet frowned when I mentioned an NB trimmer. But, hey its my money and my horse.

BUT NOW, my little-hoof-picker-aparters, you folks did such a wonderful job breaking down for me what you saw in her feet, I'm soon going to give you another job.  This time it will be Trax.  Trax is not lame, that I can see, nor that anyone else can see either. But what Trax does have is two different front feet. In fact when I got him, he almost was completely clubbed on one foot.  Jay has been trimming him almost exclusively for for two years now, and he has come a long ways. But you can still clearly see that one is different than the other.  So very, I am going to post pictures of his feet.  I will be anxiously waiting for the picking apart of his feet.  Why? Well because I want him to stay sound forever.

Speaking of Trax, I did ride last Saturday. Him and Killian. Well I tried to ride Killian.  I swear that horse just kills me. I just wanted him to trot around the arena.  I just wanted him to work up a sweat and burn a little fat.  I cannot trot him that long. It is so rough.  My kidneys start to hurt long before he breaks a sweat.  I even post with him.  Of course, part of the problem could have been that I had Tom's saddle on him. It is a 17.5 or 18 inch seat. I swim in it.  Next time I won't be too lazy to switch my saddle from Trax to Killian. Yes Killian has feet issues too. Not lame, but flat round feet that do not grow. (He is getting trimmed this weekend so perhaps some before and after pictures to show my "pickers" are in order.)

So I rode Trax, he was a little frisky that day.  TC was there and took some video, but was wanting to leave, so the video was shot before I really had him warmed up.  I have to wait till Feb to upload to you tube. I'm out of my allotted Internet usage right now.

Trax waiting to get to work. 

We did a lot of cantering trying to work on getting in the right lead.  He is more than happy to canter along in the wrong lead. This week I learned that for Asymmetrical horses that is not unusual. I also learned that it is common for them to need to warm up at a canter.  Well that is my horse for sure.

I am trying desperately to get him to stand next to a wall and when I ask, take a step closer.  Gonna need some help with that. We will never get past the gate task, if he can't learn that.

I wanted him to just drop his head, he insisted on backing up

It wasn't that good of a ride, but I did finally find a positive to end on, and when we were done he was just soaked.  I loosened his cinch and walked him to cool him down. Then he rested quietly while I rode Killian. When I was done with K, I took Trax out to the trailer, unsaddled him, and then took him back inside.  Trax can be notoriously hard to catch, especially after being ridden, so when I made the decision to turn him loose in the arena, I seriously questioned my sanity.

I wish I had got pictures.

I took off his halter which was still tied to the wall.  He looked at me with complete confusion.  I gave him a motion to tell him to move away from me.  He took two steps.  He looked back.  I told him to go ahead. He didn't bolt, he calmly walked across the arena, found a nice spot and rolled.  Then He got up, moved to another spot and rolled the other side.  Now Killian was between us and I couldn't see Trax very well.  Imagine my surprise when he did not make a beeline for the back corner.  I almost fell over when he quietly walked over to where his halter was still tied and dropped his head and waited.  

He said, "Thanks Lady. Can we go home now?"

Trax has never done that.  EVER!
Can you say many treats for the spotted pony that day?