Mustang Saga

Bella helped me with chores today.  She wasn't exactly thrilled about it.  First we dragged hoses, emptied a trough, filled a trough, and moved a trough.

You can't really tell but in this first photo the trough is on a yard cart and she's following it.  At first she was very skeptical but she got over it.  Yes, that green slime is disgusting.  Nobody's been drinking out of it for a while.  I'll scrub it before I refill it.

 Going through the carport:

I had her tied to the trailer while I hosed the mud off of it, and she didn't really like that a lot, but she dealt with it okay, and I was careful not to let it get too scary. 

Then we had a ride.  We worked on walk/trot transitions in the front field, and did some figure 8's at the trot.  She was lame at the trot, which is how she always is, but she has to learn this stuff if she's going to be a riding horse.  At least enough to get by, but not enough to drill her into the ground.  We trotted for maybe 5 minutes, not all at once.

At the end of our ride we went up and down the flat part of the driveway and she was lame at the walk.  Shit.

I've studied her gait enough now that I'm positive it's her right stifle.  I'll ask about joint injections but from what I know (which isn't much) they're very expensive and a short-term fix.

 

Interestingly timed - my husband called while I was riding her and told me his business trip was cancelled.  I've been thinking about making a trip to the wild horse corrals in Burns, just to look.  I realized  this might be the perfect time to go.  So I think an adventure is just around the corner.