Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Riding Night

I took Cruise on his first solo ride across the river for the year. He was so excited! It took him a while to walk, instead of gait. I did do a little trotting. He went fast and sound. We were able to get by the first fallen tree, but when I saw the second, I figured, no way on an older horse with vision problems. I had to go down a rooty, steep hill and make very tight, sharp turns. We headed back. I did do a little back and forth at a trot in the area that wasn’t washed down to gravel. He never settled down.




I rode Cole in the arena. He was awesome. Everything is just falling in place. One of the boarders was riding, and she had a friend with her. The friend clicker trains her dog and cats, but never saw it done with horses. It was so nice to talk to a fellow clicker. Cole showed off his trot, and everyone was duly impressed. It just keeps getting better. I need my sister to take some more video. I showed off how I can trot, drop the reins and say “whoa” and he stops suddenly. I didn’t have a mitten for him to pick up, though. This woman was so thrilled that horses do so well with clicker. Well, why not? If you can train a cat with clicker, you can train anything.



The weather is going sour, so I don’t know how much I will be able to go on the trail in the next week or so. I won’t ride Cruiser outside unless the ground is thawed and snow and ice free. My mantra is, “Protect the Tendon!”



He got accepted into a research program on Metabolic Syndrome for the University of Michigan. I think they may have picked him because he actually never got laminitis. I’m sure they don’t get many subjects like that. Most people don’t know their horse has it until too late. He really was lucky to bow his tendon and have a vet that thought there might be a connection. I have all kinds of information that I need to gather for it. it will be work, but I like the idea of being able to help horses in the future with his condition.

3 comments:

Stacey Stearns said...

I heard about the University of Michigan study. As a Morgan owner, I am going to be really interested to see what they find out - its great that you are participating! Did you blog about Cruiser's tendon issue being metabolic related? I would be interested in hearing more about that.

Judi said...

I've been writing for many years with my monthly newsletter, but only blogging for a few, so, though I know I wrote about it, I'm not sure if it's on the blog.

I will check into it.

I was lucky to have a vet who specializes in tendons. They treated over 15,000 horses with bowed tendons! When Cruiser's tendon got re-inflamed when it was nearly healed, for no good reason, the vet suggested checking for insulin resistance and cushings. Sure enough, he was insulin resistant.

From looking at him, you would have never guessed. He is a lean horse with no crest or fat pads.

It makes sense because human diabetics are more prone to tendon issues, too. It affects the whole body.

We changed his diet, and i ride him 5 days a week. He hasn't had any trouble, since.

Achieve1dream said...

Wow that's awesome about getting to participate in the study. He won't have to go in to get tested or anything will he? Glad you had a good ride. I hope the bad weather hurries through and then goes away for the rest of the spring and summer. :)