Amend the PLAN, listen to your horse

I had anticipated getting on Dusty today and get this big great awesome ride out of him since his teeth were just "flotated"

-NHPeople: this means they file down their back molars till the whole line of them are even across the tops. My vet did this with a power drill with a little round sander at the end, a speculum and one tiny dose of some kind of anesthesia. Old school they did this with a file and a twitch. This in general is supposed to solve a whole plethora of problems with how a horse is going. If they are not chewing right then the neck is all messed up, and so the back, and so the hind etc...I suppose, perhaps not in that order.

The vet was out on Friday and gave him all of his vaccines, aside from floating his teeth. I wasn't too sure about giving them all at one time, but she said it would be alright, or I could stretch it out (which means more trips in the trailer, or more $60 farm calls). I saw all of the syringes... Encephalitis, Tetanus, Influenzua, Rhino, West Nile, and Rabies. He was just standing there with his head almost on the ground practically drooling. She said about 20-25 mins. I waited almost an hour to fed him. Still dropping pellets, but not as much. I think the dropping of food is just that he's messy.

His temp has been just a tad over (99.5, today) what it is normally and I'm sure that's because of all of those shots. He feels "warm" (?) to me. I'm trying to keep him very low stress and whattaknow he goes and scratches his thigh on something. I thought about checking him to see if he was off because of it, but I didn't. I wasn't going to ride or anything anyway.

When I pulled into the driveway today he was out grazing on the lush yard grass and he raised his head and said "HEEEYYY!!" to me. He was in a totally lovable mood, went into his stall as soon as I entered the barn. He just wanted LOVE. Very pleasant mood. He has had pretty much three days off in a row, very relieved that the heat of summer is beginning to let up.

I groomed him and the tail was a bit more active today than usual. So were the flies that were biting his ankles.

He was lazy. Lazy while lunging, LAZY while riding. Forward motion was DRAGGING along. He started arguing with me when I asked for the trot again like months before. He was starting to get louder and I was all: "NO WAY. WE GO." I thought at first that IF it was his teeth that were the problem at first then this reaction is just in his brain. All I planned for today was a long stretch out. He has been enjoying this warmup and today he wasn't even thinking about stretching. not. for. a minute.

I engaged into a little bit of dialogue with him and he, like he always does agreed and stretched. A Little. Whenever I put my inside leg on him the least little bit he turned his head and yelled at me. (WHA???). Still, I persisted. He obliged (ears flipped back at me instead of forward and relaxed) and I stopped the work. I thought that I would give it to him and then see what he feels like doing. I let him walk me around the arena, as soon as I was on the buckle he headed straight for the poles on the ground (uh? I guess he just wants to have fun today?) I think it was a total of 20 minutes.

We went for a walk around the pond and up and down some little hills. He has really had a easy week for the most part and maybe his body hurts from all those shots, maybe that scratch he won't let me touch, maybe he just wasn't feeling like being ridden today, maybe he just wanted to hang out today? Whatever it may be he was NOT feeling like work, so I listened, I think he got it. He was just as lovable when I got off as he was before ride. My lesson today was: "Amend the PLAN, listen to your horse."