The power was out!

I went to the barn this AM and the power/water was out -- which was disappointing, as I wanted to really scrub the scurfy rainrot that was on Holden's legs. Apparently town-wide people have been losing power. 

I unwrapped Holden's legs this AM and his legs looked just as tight as yesterday, though the "thickness" in his ankle is still there. I figured after him being on stall rest and only being asked to handwalk for a week, that his thick ankle is likely just another one of the many bumps and scrapes some racehorses come with. It still doesn't seem to bother him, and has no heat. He is definitely sound on it.

Holden's leg, clean & with ointment on the scrape!

Like any respecting OTTB he seems to have various "benign" maladies.. today I noticed he has a rub from below his halter, so I adjusted the fit and put some ointment on the rub. The scurf on his legs was given a thorough brushing, but since the water was turned off, we weren't able to scrub with water him today.

I tacked him up in the barn aisle and spent some time brushing his face - something he wasn't too keen on. He's definitely warmed up to being handled over the past few days - he is starting to be super inquisitive and almost seems to want attention. I also spent some time picking his feet and holding his hooves up - the farrier is coming on Wednesday and I want Holden to be a good client for him. It's obvious Holden's shoes are too small for his feet, and it looks as if whatever farrier he had on the track had just lobbed off a good portion of his hoof size to accommodate the shoes. The shoes are aluminum, and many farriers don't hot-shoe aluminum because it is quick to melt and lose shape -- so it is likely his feet were made to accommodate the shoe and not the other way around.

After our "work out".

I continued to "tack" up - but in reality that consisted only of polos behind and the bridle. He was good today about the bridle being slipped in, but resisted a little at first.  In the indoor we worked primarily on walk/halt transitions in hand. He is very quick to stop when I stop and go when I go - I don't necessarily think he has gotten the verbal "cues" completely, but he understands body language and stops as soon as I stop and walks as soon as I walk.

I tried something different today, and worked on trotting in hand fairly briefly. We did both directions - he didn't want to trot on at first, and is pretty sensitive about being "pulled". The few times I've inadvertently pulled on him in the past few days he has wheeled his head away. I figured rather than upset him further, he just needed some sort of auxiliary aid -- I returned to walk/halt transitions a few times and then carried a lunge whip on the inside hand, away from him. This seemed to do the trick, and we did several walk/trot transitions perfectly. Going to the right was much more difficult for him -- I couldn't seem to get him to trot forward with the whip in hand without getting a big reaction from him - so I elected to trot him to the right while leading on the outside, which worked MUCH better. I'm thinking he just needs time and assurance going to the right, because he definitely wants to try.

At the end of the session.

I like that he takes the time to think about things. While I was putting the whip against the wall he stood calmly and didn't move -- something that for-sure I thought would spook him. I managed to snap some pictures of him and he didn't seem to mind the paparazzi -- or the flash that came with it!

Tomorrow my parents come to see him (yay!). I wanted to give him a bath today after the scrub so that he would be spic-n-span clean for them, but the water and power was off. Hopefully the don't mind a somewhat dusty pony!

Today also marked the day he goes back to "regular" turn-out. I turned him out in the paddock at around eleven, and I will have to go back to the barn before work (at around 4:30) to pull him back into his stall to be in at night. Because he isn't "used" to grass yet, the BO and I have agreed to take it slow. 

Holden 9/21/2013

I wanted to include this bottom picture so that a few months from now I will have something to compare to. Holden still has his "racing physique" -- tight tummy, ribby, etc -- and I am hoping in the next few weeks both of those will go away and he will be fat and sleek!