Drifter's ground manners have been just fine the past several days. Studliness must come and go . . .
We've been restarting our trot work to rebuild his fitness, adding some time every ride. Yesterday, he started balking a bit when I asked for a walk/trot transition. The quality of his trot is better in lengthening than when his stride is shorter. After my ride, he was ever so slightly dragging his left hind toe as he brought the leg forward - this was very worrisome. But this morning, his walk was normal again - I don't think it's a recurrence of EPM symptoms but rather some muscular weakness/fatigue - we worked pretty hard yesterday. Today he was balky again in the first couple of upwards transitions, but trotted well in lengthening once he got moving, although when I'm posting the trot tracking left, it's clearly a bit more of an effort for him - on that diagonal I'm weighting the left hind. After our ride - I kept it a bit shorter today - his walk was normal - no toe dragging, which was a relief. Next time I ride, I may give him a 500-lb. dose of Banamine that morning - if he trots more willingly, then soreness is likely, if not then weakness may be the cause of his uncertainly.
There's always something with horses . . .
Dawn and Pie are well - Dawn has started some trot work - her first trotting under saddle barefoot - and is doing well. Pretty soon, I'll be giving her some time in the paddock with pea gravel to help her frogs and heels develop. Pie has been going on the trail with Charisma, and has been happily trotting and cantering on turnout. He was very girthy yesterday - unusual for him and probably indicating some sternal soreness - and has a big sore knot on the left side of his neck that I worked on for a while yesterday. I'm going to have our chiropractor work on him a bit when she comes next week.
Much colder weather is coming and many Christmas prepartions to make . . .
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