Hooves are amazing!! Update on Chrome's rehab.

I am blown away by the difference in Chrome's hooves in just seven weeks!  With only five weeks of rehab (started on September 1st).  Wow!  This is just shy of eight weeks since his founder scare on August 12th.  I apologize that the picture on the left is slightly off center and that the flash went off in the picture on the right (his collateral grooves are a lot deeper than they appear so he has great sole depth).  You can still see the huge difference in his hooves, especially his frog and the contraction of his heels!

In case you missed my earlier post a quick recap is that on 8/12 the vet diagnosed and treated Chrome for founder.  On 8/16 he blew a huge (an inch wide) abscess and walked off sound.  On 8/17 I contacted a master trimmer that has been advising me over the phone and email how to trim Chrome's hooves and treat his seedy toe (he lives in a different state).  On 9/1 I trimmed him for the first time on the advice of the trimmer (there was a delay because I sprained an ankle which hurt my back), so I consider that the start of his rehab.

His rehab has consisted of the following:

1. Removed him from the largest portion of the grass (he still has some because I don't have a dry lot).
2. Fenced off the pond so he can no longer get into it (pretty sure the constant wet/dry and mud caused his hoof infections).
3. Soaked with Oxine (off brand of White Lightning) approximately 1-2 times a week for seedy toe and thrush.
4. Trimmed a little at a time based on the instruction of the trimmer. Trimming a little at a time let's him get used to the new angles and keeps me from getting overwhelmed as I learn.  Also if I do something wrong by mistake it prevents it from being catastrophic (I haven't so far, but it's always a possibility).  The trim is what got him landing heel first after years of landing toe first, which allowed his frog to be stimulated which strengthens the rear supporting structures of his hooves.
5. Exercise.  Once he was landing heel first I started hand walking him daily.  I started at ten minutes a day because of his weak stifles and we slowly worked up to 40 minutes of walking a day with a couple of trots in hand on soft ground.  We walk two to three times a week on the asphalt roads to stimulate hoof growth and help self trim between my trims.  The rest of the time we walk on grass or dirt.  I try to walk him on as varied terrain as a I can find in my limited selection (slight slopes, tiny loose gravel, over limbs, etc.) to strengthen his hooves and teach him better proprioception.  

I am SO excited with his progress!  I'm glad I decided to pull up his old pictures to compare them because I was actually thinking just today that he wasn't making much progress.  It's crazy how blind you are to change when you see something every day.  I know his hooves are far from perfect, but he is already growing down a new hoof capsule.  In four to six months he will have a brand new hoof that will be less elongated and better attached with no white line stretching.  It's a very exciting process to witness. 

If you're interested in learning more about healthy hooves and barefoot rehab (I know he's never had shoes, but even barefoot horses can get contracted heels and toe first landings if they have infections or long heels that prevent frog stimulation) be sure to check out the Rockley Farm blog (http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/).  I've learned so much from her and it's been an amazing resource to have during all of this.  I've never actually contacted her, but I've heard she is super helpful by email if you don't live near enough to send your horse there (they live in Exmoor so I'm definitely not close enough). 

Going forward I'm going to continue his exercise, but I'm also going to look more closely at his diet.  I already have him on a ration balancer with low sugar, but due to our mineral content in our grass and hay it may not be as good for him as I thought (we have way too much iron and it has iron in it).  I'm still studying and working out a new ration for him, but I'll update you on it when I can.  I have to send off samples of the new hay crop.  I am getting a lot of my nutrition information from Rockley Farm (LOVE her book Feet First/highly recommend it/her blog linked above) and also from Pete Ramey (http://www.hoofrehab.com/) which is where my master trimmer trained.

Let me know what you think of Chrome's progress so far and if you have any good resources for equine diets and mineral balance.  Thanks guys!!

P.S.  The only thing I'm upset about is that I let Chrome get as bad as he did because of pure ignorance and fear of taking things into my own hands instead of depending on other people.  I'm not going to beat myself up though.  He has already made huge progress and at this rate it shouldn't be long before most of the damage is healed.  Horses are incredible creatures and more resilient than we give them credit for (except of course they love trying to kill themselves to give us heart attacks.......) most of the time.  I'm forever grateful to the people who helped me through the most terrifying thing I've experienced with Chrome (the founder scare) in the ten years we've been together.  I'm going to stay positive and look forward instead of dwelling on the past and the "couldn't, should've, would've" mentality I sometimes get trapped in.  Chrome for sure isn't blaming me and is back to his happy, silly self and that I am also grateful for.  Go hug your horses people!!

Bratty Chrome Goes for a Walk

I cut myself out of most of the pictures because I look awful.  I haven't felt well and I was in comfy clothes and looked icky lol.  Chrome, Jackal, hubby and I went for a really short walk this evening after hubby got home from work.  Chrome was a brat!!  As we were walking up the driveway he was lagging behind me (and I wasn't paying attention). When he spotted the horses across the street he sped up (still walked, but a fast walk) and almost stepped on me as he tried to barge past.  I went ballistic and made him back down the driveway.  Once he was keeping his distance we went out onto the road.

Once out on the road he flipped his tail, put his head in the clouds and started blowing really loud because there is a new horse (the dun mare's lease ended and she left so neighbor girl brought her flea-bitten gray QH to the property and Chrome hadn't seen him yet) there.  The above pictures were after he calmed down because I scolded him.  I made him yield his haunches, whoa, lower his head and back up for several minutes, mixing it up so he couldn't predict what I was going to do next.  When he would walk with his head moderately relaxed and not looking at the horses I praised him.  When he veered into me, turned his head into me, flipped his tail or started staring at them I started the yielding, whoa, lowering head and backing again.  Eventually he chilled out and walked calmly, even lowering his nose to the pavement at times.

 Haha Jackal is shaking off.

 I look like crap, but this is too cute not to share.  

Chrome is looking forward at the horses on the way back home 

and Jackal has his ears back listening to the dogs behind us and whining lol.

Naughty boys!!

Once we were back at the house Chrome refused to walk through this tiny puddle...... What the heck horse??  I was persistent and patient and he eventually walked through it.  Dork.

The sunset was gorgeous!

I'm going to start taking Chrome for walks as often as possible again because he needs exposure.  He's such a dork that has forgotten everything he ever knew about being on the roads.  So annoying.  I still love him though.  :)

1st Oxine (White Lightning) Treatment

 I love seeing what pictures the GoPro takes when set to every ten seconds hehe.

I did Chrome's first thrush treatment today.  It was a total pain in the butt, but Chrome was a total love bug and an absolute perfect angel so it's okay.  He's worth it.  :D

First I had to clean them out as much as possible... without a hose... lol.  I used water bottles to pour water over his hooves.  They definitely weren't as clean as they should have been.  Oh well.

Jackal was convinced he had to help by eating the stinky crap I dug out of Chrome's hooves... ew.

 Still helping...

Then I had to mix the Oxine and vinegar to activate it.  I didn't realize it had to sit for a few minutes before adding the water so we walked up and down the driveway to kill time.

 Chrome had to help me take the tape off lol.

 Pausing during our walk for a foot picture.

Our legs are the same length lol.

Then I added the water and got my fancy (ghetto) Ziploc baggie soaking boots and put his hooves in them.

 Zipping his hoof in the duct tape reinforced baggie.

 Wrapping duct tape around his pastern to keep it on and keep the gas in.

 Chrome's ghetto booties.

Waiting for twenty minutes while they soaked was boring!!!!  Chrome did a good job of keeping me entertained by smiling at me, licking my hands, wiggling his lip in my palm, etc.  He is the derpiest horse on the planet and can totally keep himself entertained so easily haha.  He did fantastic standing really still too!

The baggies held up really well (I put duct tape all over the bottom where they would touch the ground to reinforce them) so I should be able to reuse them.  :D  I was bad and didn't do his back hooves because my back is hurting.  I will do them tomorrow.  Then we will see mid week or next weekend how they look and decide if he needs a second treatment.  I'll continue to do my salt water during the week and I have a ton of Apple Cider Vinegar so I might try that too since a reader commented about having good success with it.  Thanks!

After that we went for a mile walk to let his hooves dry while still clean.  I know it's a lost cause with all the mud, but Jackal and hubby wanted to go too so it was fun.  Here are pictures from our walk (still LOVE my GoPro!).

 My boys!

I reached over to take the rope back from hubby and got clobbered (see the shadow?).  Naughty horse!  He didn't bite.  He just uses his lips.  He's good about that.  :)

 My handsome boys!

 Hubby steering Chrome back onto the road and almost tripping over Jackal lol.

Chrome is a big boy and can walk all by himself haha.  

I left his rope over his back while I walked backwards in front of them for pictures.  He tried to explore a trail that he is absolutely fascinated with (goes off into the woods, but sadly it's private property) so that's why hubby had to lead him back onto the road in the second to last picture.  :)  

The walk was fun, but doing the hooves was boring and annoying.  It would be so much easier with running water (ours is off in the winter) and a concrete wash stall, but we did the best we could.  I'm impressed how well the baggies worked, but I'm gonna have to buy mom another roll of duct tape because I used a lot of it lol.  I'm looking forward to seeing how his hooves look in a day or two.  They looked so clean and smelled nice after the soak, so I'm hopeful.  I only had to use two tablespoons per hoof of the Oxine so that bottle should last me years!!  Even if I decided to do monthly maintenance treatments in the winter to prevent it.  I love that it's all natural too so it can't hurt him and it bio-degrades into regular table salt so it's environmentally friendly.  :) I'll keep you updated on his hooves!  I'm hoping to ride tomorrow to see if his stride feels normal again.  I haven't ridden him since the longeing we did last week.  :\

A not very peaceful walk....

One word..... FLIES!!!!  I totally forgot to fly spray Chrome before our walk (but hey look at me I remembered his bonnet... go me!) so the flies drove us bonkers the whole walk.  I think I literally killed fifteen or twenty by smacking them when they would land on him and then stepping on them when they fell to the road.  He got to where he would stop and wait for me to walk around him when those evil green headed flies would land on him.  Poor guy!

He likes sniffing asphalt.

Some of these pictures are blurry because it was very overcast and I didn't put my camera on shutter priority until a ways into our walk lol.  Some of them look a lot alike, but what can you do when all you're photographing is a horse walking down the street LOL!

Chrome was lagging behind and stopping when we first started the walk because he wanted to go home and hide in the barn to escape the flies.  Then he remembered that the neighbor's horses were up ahead and picked up the pace.  Poor snubbed Chrome.  They wouldn't even come out of their barn.  That's how bad the flies were.  Then he spotted a herd of cattle in the distance and stopped.... I asked him to walk on, he went two strides and stopped again.  And again and again and again, every two strides.  So I finally got frustrated and spun the end of my rope at him making him trot circles around me (which I hate to do on asphalt but it was only a couple of circles).  That got his attention and he started paying attention better.

Unfortunately it also riled him up.  He was staring at everything and had his head in the clouds, but at least he was keeping up (I was in a hurry because I was hot and my back hurt).  So we got to the hill at the halfway point and he walked up and down the other side, then turned around and walked back over.  On the downhill side headed toward home he wanted to trot, but he listened.  At the bottom I turned him around to do the hill again.  He balked.  That is getting so annoying.  I swung the rope at him again and he scooted forward, so I trotted next to him about halfway up the hill and then let him drop back to a walk since we were on asphalt.  We went to the top then turned around and came back down because traffic was getting bad (50 mph on a 30 mph road... grr!).

Oh I almost forgot to mention, when we trotted up the hill and then I let him walk he swung his head toward me so I blocked him with my arm.  I do that all the time because I don't like his head too close to my face.  He actually tried to nip me!!!!!  I'm thinking it was probably the flies because I was really close to him so I got in the way, because he hasn't tried to nip in years.  I made him get away from me and we were fine for the rest of the walk.

On the way home he was striding out great (barn sour brat!), but about halfway home he slowed back down because of the flies and he was tired lol.  I was tired too so it was okay hehe.  It was getting really hot too.  I forgot to mention that.

On the way out at one point Chrome slammed on the brakes and looked behind him.  There was a turkey vulture in the road.  As soon as he recognized it he kept going.  Then on our way back home he was still there.  I got some pictures of him on the road in front of us, but I'm not going to share it because he had literally turned his roadkill squirrel inside out and I don't figure you want to see that.  I did get this shot of him when he flew up into the pine trees to let us go by.

The rest of the walk home was completely uneventful.  Once I made it back into the air conditioning with my heart racing I decided I need to start walking every day again because I am SO out of shape lol.

Chrome is so sheltered!

First I wanted to share a few pictures of Faran since I haven't posted anything about him in a while.  I brushed him for half an hour and I swear I got two pounds of fur off of him lol.  I don't mind though because I'm ready for him to shed out his sun bleached winter coat.

He lost a bit of weight over the winter (they all did actually), but he's gaining it back nicely.

You can see his ribs.  :(  His mane is pretty though. It took me a while to get the snarls out because the flies are out and he likes to shake his whole head which makes a quick mess of his mane!  I used some of the Show Sheen detangler on it, so hopefully it will keep some of the snarls out better.  Also I think that was the first time I've used a mister (instead of spray) bottle around him... he panicked at first, but then stood still on the second try.  He's so silly.

Oh I forgot to mention all of this was yesterday, I'm just posting a day late because I had to post baby Friesian pictures.  :)  So I did Chrome's workout yesterday (routine 1 with road walk, tail rotations, pelvic tuck, backing uphill and shoulder back and down stretch) and we went 1.84 miles.  By the way, for those of you who don't have fancy phones (mine doesn't have internet, just call and text) you can download and use Google Earth for free.  It has an Add Path tool that lets you trace out the route you took (use arrow keys to move around the map and mouse to draw path) and then it tells you how far you went.  This obviously works better on roads, but trails might show up pretty well too.  It's really great.

Anyway, I took a video of Chrome as we were walking past the neighbor's horses so you can see how he acts and why I'm a little nervous about riding him out totally alone just yet (and also why I called him sheltered in the post title).  :)  The video is below, but let's look at the pictures I took first.

It was around noon so the lighting wasn't great.

 I'm too tall!  If I forget to crouch, the perspective

 is off and he looks like he has short little legs LOL!

 All natural beveled edge from walking on pavement twice a week!  Yay!

 After we got home, he got a drink and this is him turning to walk back up the bank.

This isn't a great photo, but it shows his muscles (or lack of) fairly well.  Notice how he's getting the dip in front of his withers and developing the underside of his neck?  It's past time for some dressage to correct the way he carries himself, but that's what will make the assessments fun each month to see how his muscles change and develop.  :)

Now on to the video! Sorry I think it is about three and a half minutes long, but it's well worth watching it!!  I hope you can see it.  If not, let me know and I'll try to get screenshots.  So when we walked by the first time he was staring at them like he always does and wanting to get antsy, but he listened well and kept going.  You'll notice in the video whenever we get past them he wants to stop constantly and look back, but it's easy to get him walking again with a cluck and light tug on the rope.  After we went to the hill (which we walked back and forth over twice this time) we came back by on the way home.

On the way back the neighbor horses were amped up!!  They were galloping around, snorting, bronco bucking, just being total nuisances, so of course Chrome got amped up too.  They were all feeding off of each other I think.  So he turned on FULL ARAB MODE and oh my goodness he was GORGEOUS!!!!  I would pay money to see him in an Arabian Liberty Class because boy is he a show off!  That's why you have to watch the video so you can see the arched neck, flagged tail and floating trot hehe.  That is also why I stupidly encouraged him to behave this way when he was younger.  I'm dumb lol.  The good thing is that he's not out of control or anything.  I'm just worried how bad he would be under saddle since he has a tendency to be more nervous without me right there beside him.

Also I do not normally let him have the full length of his rope, but I did today so I could get the video.  He normally doesn't get this amped because I can keep him reeled in and get his attention better (even with his flat nylon halter, which I haven't fixed yet so I'm still using the rope halter).  So anyway I'll quit chattering and let you watch the video...


Isn't he gorgeous??  Or am I just barn blind?  :D

P.S. When I call Chrome an idiot in the video I'm using it as a term of affection.  I call my dog a dummy and my dad a butthead too.  It's just the way my family is. :D  I was never mad at him.  My voice sounds meaner in the video than it does in real life hehe.

Chrome's Third Workout

Sorry for the old picture.  I couldn't take pictures today because of the threat of rain.  I didn't mind if I got soaked, but I definitely didn't want my camera soaked.  As luck would have it, it didn't rain, but better safe than sorry.  Also sorry for not posting yesterday!  I totally forgot.  I will get it done tomorrow since it will be raining all day.

So I decided to do his workouts every other day instead of three days a week, since this is a workout routine for a three year old and he's almost five.  Today was the third routine.  It was a fairly easy one which was great since his stifles have been sticky since his last workout.  I was worried he was in pain, but he was trotting around out in the pasture, practically floating off the ground, so I'm guessing he's fine lol.  I'm also having him trimmed at the four week mark since his last trim instead of waiting six weeks, just to see if it makes a difference for his stifles.

Today we started out with a walk on the roads.  We only went 1.69 miles, but there is a hill at the end going that way and it's fairly sloped all the way up that road.  Good workout for all of us (hubby went again).  Chrome was super eager and had his head in the clouds for most of the walk.  The new direction there were horses out and they were galloping around, excited to see us.  Chrome flagged his tail over his back and his walk got super springy, but he managed not to break into a trot.  Good boy!!  He was about as high as a kite, but he contained himself well.

We continued past the horses and went up over the hill, down the other side, turned around and came back.  Next time I'll add a couple more back and forth loops on the hill, but I don't want to overdo it.  It's a pretty steep hill.  One of the exercises on today's routine is hill work, but they want the horse longed at a trot on a hill.  I don't have a place for that and circles are bad on stifles, so I'm just going to walk back and forth in a straight line on the hill work days.  Straight lines up and down hills are the best thing for stifles.

We headed back home and after we went by the horses again he started acting balky.  It only took two times before he gave up, lowered his head and walked home in a relaxed manner.  Dork.  On our next walk I'll probably just walk him back and forth in front of their pasture until he calms down.

After the walk it said to step over the hay bale again. Since his stifles are still sticky I just took him over it three times, then called it good.  I don't want to overdo it, but I know I have to push a little or he'll never get any muscles.

After that was tail rotations and a tail pull.  On the tail pull, you stand behind him, take his dock in both hands and gently pull straight back keeping it in line with his spine.  You hold the pull for twenty seconds and sloooowly release the stretch.  The book said if the horse clamps his tail, stamps his feet or shifts side to side that he probably needs a chiropractor for spine issues, but Chrome stood like a statue and didn't move.  Yay!  The tail pull is gradually built up to two minutes!! I don't know if I can pull on his tail for two minutes lol.

The last exercise for today's routine was the TMJ massage.  It tells you to start at the top of the jaw.  If you draw a line down from the ear and over from the eye it shows you where to start.  You make small, gentle circles with two fingers and then press firmly for a few seconds.  If there is no response you move down an inch and do it again, then down another inch and do it again.  If the horse shows a release (yawning, blinking, sighing, etc.) you do it again.  I did the first spot, nothing, moved to the second spot, nothing, moved to the third spot and got a HUGE yawn!  Did it again, nothing.  Did the other side and the exact same thing happened.  :)  The yawn means he was releasing tension in his jaw.  This is one reason I love this book because it uses a lot of massage techniques that you would find in the Masterson's massage work.  :)

Chrome was doing one weird thing today... rooting his nose whenever I put pressure on his halter.  I think the reason is because I let him graze for several hours yesterday and he was wearing his rope halter since I haven't fixed his nylon halter.  He kept stepping on his rope, pulling against it and then yielding and stepping backward off of the rope.  I think he made his face sore where the knots sit, which is probably why I got such a great release on the TMJ massage.  I'll probably do that massage again when I feed him later.  I got the clip I need to fix his halter so I'll only use it for grazing from now on.  I feel bad he made his face sore.  :(

There is one more new routine that we will do on Tuesday, then it will be just repeating all of them so I won't be posting all of the details after Tuesday.  On the nineteenth I'm going to do his assessment to get baseline information and then I'll use it to track our progress throughout the workout program.  The prep phase, which is what we're doing, can last from one to two months.  Then we move on to the basic cardio program.  That's when I'll be doing a lot more riding and things will get more interesting hehe.

P.S.  I was going to ride today on our road walk, but with the threat of rain I chickened out lol.  I really, really need the exercise too, so it's not that big of a deal.  The prep phase is supposed to be ground work only anyway.  I was just going to cheat since he's almost five and I've been riding him off and on for two years.  I'm also going to start working on our CTR obstacles again soon too.  I've just been really, really busy working on some of the stuff that wasn't finished on our house!  Jackal is going to have a dog door yay!!!  I also discovered today that Chrome's likes the inside of his ears scratched just like his sire!!!

Equine Fitness!

On Amazon HERE

A friend was asking me about the stifle exercises I'm doing with Chrome and I decided to look in my Equine Fitness book (pictured above) to refresh my memory on the ones we haven't been doing   Of course while looking at those I started reading over my notes and realized I need to get Chrome in shape.  Since I like structure and this book was laying out perfectly structured routines I don't know why I haven't been using it.  Winter always kicks my motivation out the window.

So since my husband and dad are both trying to get in better shape I figured maybe Chrome and I need to as well.  So our routine today went like this...

My husband, Chrome and I went for a two mile walk (yeah I walked too because I need it, although I really wanted to ride hehe).  I forgot my camera so you'll have to use your imagination, but Chrome did great!  As soon as we got past the point where we normally turn around Chrome's head shot straight up in the air.  He was walking fast with his head in the clouds and finally broke into a trot.  I corrected him (do NOT want him trotting without permission) and he calmed back down.  The reason he got excited is because there are horses in that direction and he knows it. Today we didn't see a single one... weird.  I guess they were all hiding in their barns.

So I started praising him when he'd lower his head and relax a little.  We passed majorly rutted driveways, puddles (he eyeballed those), Styrofoam (dang litterers), plastic bags, brush piles (eyeballed those too), junk piles, hay bales, etc.  We even passed a kid swinging on one of those brightly colored double swing sets and it was right by the road.  He barely even glanced at it.  We also had a kid on his bike going up and down the road.  He passed us four times.  When Chrome first saw him, his head shot up and he froze.  I let him stand and watch it pass us.  Chrome was already relaxed before the bike even passed us.  The rest of the times he didn't even look at it, even when the brakes squealed.  He met the kid's little rat terrier and didn't try to bite her (score!) while she sniffed his leg (she was as tall as his ankle!  Stinkin cute!).

The other thing that really excited me is that along a shady part of the road there is a fairly deep ditch.  It's about six inches full of rain water since it's been raining for about a week.  He started to go to the water but I pulled him back thinking he was going for grass.  After I thought about it a second, it was warm and we'd gone further than he has in a while, I decided to let him drink if he would.  So I led him up to where he was facing the puddle and asked him to stop.  He immediately stuck his nose in it and I thought he would drink, but then he popped his head up and stared around at everything (brush piles... really horse?) for a full minute or two, then he dropped his head and drank!!!!!  I normally don't like him drinking on the side of the road because you never know what's in it, but it was recent rain water and on a fairly quiet road so I took the risk.  I'm just excited he drank while out on a walk, even when excited.  That's a great trait for his future Competitive Trail Riding career.  :D

After we got home I did his pelvis tucks, where you run a quarter down their haunches on both sides and it causes them to tuck their haunches and raise their back, it's like the equine version of a sit up.  Then I worked on backing him up a slope... he's never been very good at this so I decided to try it in the driveway on a very small slope.  I faced him away from it, asked him to put his head down and then asked him to back up the slope in the driveway.  He did great!  I don't know if it's because it was a smaller slope or if it's because we walked for two miles and warmed him up, but he was moving great.  His stifles didn't lock at all either!  :D

Last we did two stretches that are part of the first routine.  The tail rotations, where you pick up their tail and circle it a few times in each direction, and the shoulder release, where you pick up their leg, let the shoulder relax, stretch it gently backwards and let him sit it back down (sort of like stepping backward really slowly hehe).  He did great at both of those.  Stretches definitely go better after warming up, instead of trying to do them first.  On Friday it will be a different routine and on Monday it will be another routine.  There are four of them that I can spread out doing only three sessions a week.  Mixing them up helps prevent muscle memory which slows down progress, just like when we lift weights.

It also says at the end of each month to assess their progress, so I'm going to do that on the nineteenth (I need to get back to doing his progress reports anyway) of this month for a baseline and then after that each month we will assess our progress.  :)  I'll explain more as we go along.  I'm also going to post all of the stifle exercises tomorrow for my friend!

P.S.  I thought Chrome would be tired after our walk since it's twice as far as we normally go, but no he was NOT!  He was feeling spunky and mouthy (when did he get mouthy again????)!  He was being a turd about trying to graze so I popped him with the rope and it startled him so bad he jumped two feet in the air LOL!  He stopped trying to drag me around after that.  :)

We went for a short walk! (Pictures and video of Chrome's fancy trot!)

Wow Blogger uploads picture waaaay lighter than they actually are.  The above picture on my computer is so dark it looks like a silhouette, but on blogger it's so light!  Odd!  Notice his oily haunches?  That's from the MTG I'm using to treat his rain rot, so ignore his oiliness in the rest of the pictures lol.

I took Chrome for a short walk down the road just before dark (okay my hubby was leading him so I could get pictures) because the neighbor was doing some work and I wanted to see how he would react to the bulldozer.

 He spends most of his walks with his head down and relaxed.  He had a major overstep (his hind hoof was stepping a whole hoof length in front of his front hoof!) today and was moving out so well!  I think he's missed his walks.

Then he started looking around.... but not at the bulldozer.  He didn't even look at the bulldozer.  He was staring at a couple of horses that were about a quarter mile across that pasture... silly colt!

Check out this short video of him walking and looking at the other horses and then at his fancy trot as he shows off...


Here is the direct link in case you can't see embedded videos:  http://youtu.be/5HNKq9-fILU

He is so gorgeous!  I really need to stop encouraging him to show off for other horses though because that could make our trail rides... interesting.  :)  Here are some poor quality snapshots from the video of his all four off the ground trot for those of you who can't watch it.

I love this horse!  He can look so fancy when he wants to!

And here are the rest of the pictures.

In this one (above) my husband left the blue rope hanging off of Chrome's haunches so I could get a picture without someone in it.  Chrome is standing in the middle of a road, with one leg cocked, completely at ease with a bulldozer just yards away (see it in front of his chest and yes it was running, shoving dirt and rocks in a pile, which was loud!).  He's only interested in the other horses that are specks in the distance lol.  He couldn't care less about some dumb loud bulldozer.  :)

One armed hug from my hubby.  His expression is weird because he was talking lol.

Thanks everyone for the comments!  I've missed hearing from you guys and it feels nice to know we were missed a little.  :D  I'm slowly catching up on reading blogs and I'll try to start posting more.

Round Penning & Walking Chrome

Since the mud has finally cleared up I put Chrome in the round pen to get a video of him trotting (wanted to see if he was landing heel first).  I was going to share the video, but since I was doing it by myself it turned out really bad... like it will seriously make you sea sick lol.  So instead I got some screenshots for you.  You can click to enlarge the pictures.

He was being a touch lazy, but still showing off his nice trot.  :D  Now I just need to get the clicker out and teach him to put his head down again.  The last three pictures show him getting ready to buck.  He decided not to buck at the last second and just took off cantering, so I don't have any fun bucking pictures.  Like I said, he's lazy hehe.  I only trotted him in the round pen for less than two minutes.  Then I let him have a bite of hay (which is being stored in the round pen temporarily) as a reward for his good behavior.

 

 I love how the picture above turned out because he was chewing which caused the hay to move and blur.  So cool!

Then we went for our walk.  We've been walking between 1 to 1.5 miles several times a week.  I think next week I'm going to start the Couch to 5k with him.  I'm having trouble deciding how I want to do it though... should I run with him (with him trotting) out on the asphalt roads so we both get in shape or should I longe him on dirt?  Any thoughts?

 

He loves our walks.  :D  I had to remind him today that he can't balk when headed home because he wants to stare at the neighbor horses lol.  Am I the only person who has a horse who is all eager to go on the way out, but turns into a slug headed home?  Growing up my horses were always in a hurry to get home.  I guess Chrome just enjoys going new places and exploring.  :)  I can't complain about that!  I love it!