Ride #6

I rode again on Monday and discovered that perhaps the attitude and behavior of Sunday stemmed from more than just pique. He was a little off on his left front leg. I double checked the tendons, pinching as hard as I could, to zero reaction from Ashke. He didn’t even flick an ear. And there was no swelling of any kind. And yet, he still felt off and absolutely did not want to trot. 

He is pretty, though.

The hesitation was minimal and hard even for Flambé (who was also riding with me again) and Sal’s rider to see. They did agree that it was either the left front or the right rear. I asked for the canter and he was fine in the canter in both directions, so I went back to the trot. He refused to do shoulder in at the trot moving on a clockwise circle. I asked for a leg yield in that direction, which he did sharply, but when asked to move on the other lateral, the answer was a fat NOPE. 

I got off and started with the shoes and worked my way up. I had a suspicion that he had pulled or tweaked a pec muscle and sure enough, at the joint where the leg meets the chest, he let me know that the muscle on the inside of that leg was sore. He liked me rubbing it and let me know that was part of the reason he was refusing to trot. 

We did Bute and Sore No More, plus I told him to stop being a fool in his run during the day, or he would be wrapped in bubble wrap and stood in his stall. Manuel told me that he spent forty five minutes cantering up and down his run, bucking and spinning on his hind legs. You’d think if he could do that, he could trot a 15 m circle, but obviously not. He did the same type of thing a couple of winters ago, but came right in a couple of days with Bute and rest. He will get Bute tomorrow and rest from riding, then I will see how he is on Wednesday for our lesson.