A Pause

After the show on Sunday, I gave Ashke Monday off to recover and rehydrate. He was so good at the show that rushing back into work on Monday wouldn't have accomplished anything. We both needed a break. Tuesday night, I groomed him, handwalked a little bit and then waited for the chiro to come back out. We wanted to make sure he was still in alignment after the show.

The good news is there was very little to adjust. He was still in at the L6 (chronic issue) and moving through his hips, so a slight adjustment to the SI area and a couple of ribs. That was it. He didn't even kick.

Wednesday, I got this from Amanda:

Sometimes I wonder if he has a death wish.

Somehow, he managed to roll himself into the fence and hang that leg up on the lowest wire. Its skin and hair, mostly, and he has remained sound on it, but seriously, I had just had the chiro out. I texted her the picture and we made arrangements for her to check him again on Thursday night. Because he was sound, we tacked up and took a lesson.

Amanda had watched the video and wasted no time putting us to work on addressing the transitions on the forehand. We did transitions from trot-walk-trot in shoulder in, then again at the canter-walk-canter until he was really sitting back on his downward transition. Then we did shoulder in for three strides, to leg yield for three strides and back to shoulder in for three strides at the trot and again at the canter. We trotted in a 20 m circle and worked on collection and expansion, then did the same thing at the canter. We did square corners in both directions at the canter, really focusing on moving the shoulders over while keeping the back feet in the box. Then we worked on shoulder in to half pass at the trot and again at the canter. Amanda said that is an exercise we should ride every time we are riding from now until we are no longer riding. She uses it as prep for I-A. We finished by sidepassing over a pole in the half-pass position, then continuing the turn into a turn on the haunches.

We hit every thing we needed to work on from our test, without actually riding any of the elements of the test. I was a wet, shaking noodle by the time we were done, but it felt good. I think we've upped the game a bit. None of that was easy. 

 Some pretty good scrapes

Thursday, Ashke's leg was swollen around the fetlock, although he walked out on it sound. I cold hosed for a bit, then we did the chiro adjustment. She used accupuncture needles this time and he was really locked up on the right side - neck and hip and SI. I was happy I had her out, mostly because we are trying to keep him from snowballing and getting really bad.Friday morning Ashke got teeth and sheath done. He had a pretty good point on the outside of his left molars which had created an ulcer in his cheek. I thought there must be something going on since he was eating cautiously and we've been struggling with bend. Doc said that at shots we will visually inspect, instead of just running his finger in, since he didn't realize how bad it was. Ashke was chewing with much more vigor afterwards. Additionally, Doc got the bean out and cleaned his penis fairly well (Ashke actually dropped. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.) so our yearly maintenance is complete.

 Drugged and getting the teeth floated

So, one of the things we noticed during this float, which I hadn't ever noticed before, is that the end of Ashke's tongue is split. There are two pretty significant gashes, one in the exact middle that is about an inch long, and another on the right that's probably half that. They are old, from before I got him (they would have bled prodigiously) and Doc thinks it might be from him biting it. However, the split runs from the tip up his tongue, not on the sides in. Next time we are playing in his mouth, I will get a picture.

 He and his mare sleeping in the sun together.

Friday night we tried to go camping with the dogs. We ended up in an area we were unfamiliar with, next to a dirt bike and ATV track, which is not conducive to dogs who want to eat motorcycles. Not to mention, noisy. We stayed Friday night and then headed home. The dogs got one brief run in the morning, but that was it for the weekend. It was just as well we went home, since I haven't been feeling very well. Sunday, we went down to the Pride parade and wandered the booths for a bit, then went home and napped in the chair. I have been struggling with muscle aches, a sore throat and all over feeling crappy. Sunday was cool with rain starting in the afternoon and lasting through the night, so it was a good day to mostly take it easy.

I'll bet he is a mudball by the time I see him again.