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| Holden's beautiful new halter, courtesy of his awesome grandma. |
I can't remember the last time I updated, so here is an update to keep track of things.
For the past month I've been hand-walking Holden in the indoor. He has been great for ground driving but I think he got sick of it - which is fine, I did too. He may have finally realized he is a thoroughbred on stall rest after all, as some days he can be a little frisky..
The weather here has been terrible. Holden had the past three days without hand-walking which I do feel eternally terrible for, but the snow here has been almost unbearable. Every time I could make it to the barn it would start accumulating snow!
The vet came out this Tuesday to reultrasound him. She was very happy with his progress and thinks stall rest was the right thing to do. He can graduate to a medical paddock when we move home. Holden is now allowed to do 30-40 minutes of handwalking, one to two times a day - and walk poles not to exceed two or three times a week.
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Holden's clicker training has progressed, if incrementally. I use it to polish off his recall. I haven't done much more with "picking" up objects because now he likes to pick up everything. In the indoor we work on him standing, groundtying, and coming to the sound of a whistle. He's doing really well. I haven't done much to teach him "tricks", I admit - as cool as it would be to teach him to throw the saddlepad over his back, we seem to be "clicker stumped". So I'm keeping it simple. He seems to understand and enjoy that.
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| Picture A: |
His leg has felt so great lately I forgot it was a thing. There is mild thickening around the joint (residual from the injury I imagine) but any puffiness and swelling has completely gone away. When we jogged for the vet she said he was completely sound. She said his body condition was good as well -- I am not so sure I am fond of how he is looking. He is scrawny, raggedy, and fluffy - not my idea of "well groomed". He has lost his race-track physique and seems to be going through a tough course of Racehorse Crash.
He seems to be putting on weight, albeit slowly - he has fat around his haunches and through his dock, though his ribs are still visible and felt. The two pictures I've attached are so extreme - in one, he looks just the way I would like him - in the other he looks like a poster child for a rescue photo cover. The two were taken on different days and he's put on a little weight since picture A. The second, B, makes him look so ungainly. Talk about unflattering photography.
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| Picture B: |
I am entertaining the idea of practicing my braiding - I think it'll be good for him to learn to stand for such things. I haven't braided in a long time and the last time I did the end product was nothing short of a great embarrassment to my undeserving and patient horse.
