11 April 2011

It has been a busy week and I haven't really had time to update, so I'm going to break up the week into a couple different posts.

We had a hunter under saddle/hunt seat equitation clinic last week at the barn with Quarter Horse & Paint trainer Dana Panella. The night before that I had an okay ride on Cruizer and then washed his legs and tail.

1) I had to cut about 6-7 inches off of Cruizer's tail so he wouldn't step on it. Its HUGE and long and gorgeous. So happy about that.
2) Upon scrubbing his legs and hooves, I discovered on the left front a small bubble on the outside hoof wall about halfway down the hoof, accompanied with a bruise. This was not visible before due to the permanent layer of dirt on his feet. This more than explains why his left lead has been iffy lately. This may be an old mark from where his abscess blew out over the summer. As it gets closer to the sole of the hoof maybe its causing him to be sore.
3) The fungus he gets on his white hind socks is back. He gets it every year, so this is not a big issue to me. Easy fix.

During the clinic he was good but somewhat strong and tense. One girl kept crowding us on the rail, although I asked (and then told) her not to several times. Upon the reverse to work on the other way of the ring, she crowded Cruizer once again, he twisted weird, and whacked his right hind on the wall. Immediately after that I felt something not right, and had my mom grab my coach. She agreed something was wrong and we pulled him from the clinic. Upon inspection of his legs, the right gaskin was noticeably warmer than the left. I put him in his stall to hang out for awhile and then took him back out for showmanship. He seemed better and afterwards I put his tail back up and put him out in his pasture. The next day I got him out to see how sound he was, and we had an absolutely PERFECT ride. I cannot say one bad thing about it. Both gaskins were fine, and he was extremely sound. After our arena ride, we went for a solo hack around the property which he really enjoyed.








Note: He really DOES NOT like the little white pony. :)

Also, today is Cruizer's sixth birthday! No more excuses for baby behavior ;)

Tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of him being mine!



2 comments:

  1. Happy birthday Cruizer!! And happy anniversary!

    You guys look great, although I really know nothing about hunter lol. I'm glad he's feeling better. I would have been very upset if the other girl had caused a serious injury.

    ReplyDelete