Trim tweak... more lope strides...

Jester lands flat or ever so slightly heel first on the left fore now :) Right fore is still toe first. The bars on both fores are beginning to stand on their own woohoo! instead of being fused in with sole. I shaved off a bit to keep them heading upright, rockered the toe, especially the RF, and rockered the RF heels towards the heel to encourage heel first landing. His frogs are looking better, hooves are quite a bit less contracted, and concavity is building well!! Tips of the frogs on both fores are receding up into the hoof, indicative of increased healthy laminae-P3/coffin bone connection. Movement wise, he is now comfortable without boots as I hand walk him on grass, dirt and over some gravel/packed dirt. He winces still, when he steps on a rock with his frogs. In the round pen, he prefers to be lazy and hang out with me in the center. With urging he jogs, lots of kissing and clucking and spanking the ground with my training stick gets a working trot. He will canter- briefly- while I get a workout with him... no videos of that yet, ha! He can sustain the left lead for a complete lap, and we're up to 3 strides in a row of right lead, then he switches to crossfiring or counter lead. More stretches and groundwork- we practiced showmanship moves on the way to and from the round pen. He is much quieter going out alone now- I always give his feet something to do when he gets noisy (hide that hiney!!!) For a 15 year old (birthday coming up 1/29!) he's coming along fine. Still don't know if the hindquarters will come back to 100%, but we're giving it a shot. Vet and Chiropractor were optimistic that with his fores back to health, the hindquarters can heal. How much remains to be seen. Every day I ask him to raise his low back, and stretch and massage things... Did I mention the heel abrasions are both completely healed?!!! WooHoo!! Sometimes I wish I had blogged on FB so that there was a like button and easy comment functionality. Anyway, I love to hear your comments and I will read them to Jester if you want! Time to take him out for a ride!