photos

Full of life

Jester is such a character- loves attention and his twice daily bucket of feed! I left his feet alone for 3 weeks, and all I did after that long was toe breakover on the hinds, a little beveling on the lateral quarter on the right hind (his perennial flare) and lowered the heel on the right fore. He seemed tender for a day. Only a day! Now he moves stiffly only if he's been standing for a while or his feet are packed with muck. Once he warms up he moves fluidly. More flat landings with the right fore. Heel first or flat with the left fore consistently. His coat is a stunning gleaming deep golden....but his face is marred by fly bites- he was infected with habromenas again. ugh... So two oral doses of ivermectin 2 weeks apart, NuStock and absorbine liniment topically, and he seems to be beating them. If I forget his fly mask he will nudge me to ask for it. I have ridden him just a couple times in the past month, hoping he would put on some more flesh (he has) and continue healing. He is still turned out on the pasture except to have his bucket or overnight with his bucket and haynet. I haven't put boots on for turnout for over two weeks. I used fore boots just to ride on the property. We played around with walk trot, transitions, pivots, sidepass, and back. What a joy to ride! I asked for a few strides of lope- left he would do. He needs more conditioning to do the right... and maybe other therapy. His sacro-iliac/psoas issue is rarely evident. The only item left seems to be the right hind fetlock joint. Radiographs will be helpful once I save some pennies! Will try to add some photo and video...