Full house.

I rode Ace as a test today. The test was to ride him after yesterday, when he did more work than he has ever done before. I figured that if his problem was physical, then all the work would have made him more stiff and he would behave worse. And if his problem was mental, then all the work  would have made him tired and he would behave better. And the result was that he was quieter than usual. He did kick out once at the right canter transition, but continued to trot instead of bucking, and then took the transition well very shortly afterwards.  So that's another clue to put into the pot.

Woody came in very unsettled and ran round his box while I was trying to tack him up. I have no idea why he was so uppity and if it had been another horse I would not have ridden. But I trust him not to be stupid, and he needs the work for his feet, and out on the hack he was spooky but fine. And he trotted better than he has ever done before, without  the "my little pony" shuffle that he used to do with his front legs. The whole trot is both slower and longer, a marvellous improvement in less than 2 weeks of ridden work.

He's doing some bizarre things with all his feet! All change is good at this point. The more that changes, the greater the chance that he will stay sound as we increase his work. If nothing changed, then there would be no reason why he would not go lame again. Currently, he doesn't have a straight foot on him :-)  His hind foot action is really odd. As the foot hits the floor, the pastern twists out sideways, and as his foot leaves the floor and travels through, the sole of his foot is pointing at the other foot, not at the floor. It's not uncommon for horses at Rockley rehabbing front foot lameness to produce odd changes in the back legs. Woody has been barefoot behind for many years, so this is less expected, but I think it shows just how much change is going on in his whole body. Stood still, all four of his feet point inwards. It's actually quite cute :-)

His front feet were five inches long and six inches wide when he arrived. It will be interesting to remeasure them in about another month and see what they are then.

I did all three today as Radar needed hunting exercise, so we had a nice long hack with a lot of hills. He's as fit as a flea and seemed to be enjoying himself.

C