Bath Day!

I have been putting off the bath lesson because I knew it was going to be very time consuming, but I just couldn't take the dirty horse any more.  I set aside the entire morning for our lesson, and decided that I would see how far we could get, and simply end on a good note.  After three hours of approach/retreat, and rewarding every little step in the right direction, we have a clean horse from top to bottom!  Hooray!

Wet Horse :)

Ringin' the cow bell!

Dr. Jen has me applying only the pink wound dressing in hopes of softening up his scabs before surgery...  I would say it is working well, wouldn't you?

Left

Right

Remember these from day 1...?

 

 ...and today:

The right leg has made huge improvements in just one week.  It is so much softer, inside and out.  It feels like a soft lump of fat now, instead of a hard mass of scar tissue.  The left leg is still the more painful one, and it is also very solid feeling.  I have some boots to try on him, and as soon as we have protection for his tender feet, I will be taking him and Cohasset on lots of ponying rides.  I did take him out once this week, and we made it about a mile on the softest ground that I could find, but had to turn back due to rocky ground.  He remembered all of his ponying lessons too!  What a good boy...

Whew!

G'night all!
~Jackie

Visit with Dr. Jen

 

We had our last ground lesson last night, and Huckleberry was a perfect angel.  He did all of his obstacles very nicely, and even showed me a few things that I hadn't realized he had learned yet!  Suddenly, our boy has turned into a learning sponge.  He seems to get the concept of learning, and I can see the light bulb come on each time he understands what I am asking of him.  He is willing to try everything new, and the amount of trust he is showing me just melts my heart. 

Standing in the box and turn 360 degree circle

To remember back to that bundle of nerves that Alicia brought home, and how we couldn't even touch him at first...  now we have a curious, engaged horse who WANTS to learn and be around us!  I love it!!

Backing through the barrels

This morning, Alicia and I were off to see what Dr. Jen Powers had to say about Huck's legs.  No, we didn't have any surgery yet, but we are very encouraged by her optimism.  She believes that the scar tissue is shrinking, and separating itself from the ligaments and tendons underneath.  When you try to move the wounds around, they are much more mobile than before.  The extra exercise on my hills has really helped with his healing process, and now she wants me to do more!  "As much exercise as possible".  So... it is time to really start using those ponying lessons and hit the trails!  If I can manage to get him in even better shape, then surgery will be very soon.

Anyone up for a trail ride??

~Jackie

6 Months... plus a couple of days

 (Jackie here...)
Spring flowers are starting to bloom, and as Dr. Jen predicted, this really is the time for healing.  I took some pictures of Huckleberry's legs about 2 weeks ago, and they are already obsolete.  I can't believe the amount of pink skin that is sliding over those giant scabs.  I will try to get new photos for you soon (it's raining today), but in the meantime, maybe you can get the general idea from these:

Right

Left

 Both legs have about 50 percent more new skin over them today than they did when these pictures were taken.

Alicia made an appointment for him with Dr. Jen next Thursday.  I am very anxious to see what she will do with him from here.  I don't know if she will do any surgery at this visit, or if she just wants to take a look at the legs and form a plan from there.  We will definitely let you know!


In the meantime, like Alicia said, our boy is bulking up nicely out on my property.  He doesn't let his legs hold him back, and is constantly traveling the hills with my other three horses.  Dixie, my lead mare, keeps everyone moving.  Thankfully, all of the horses have realized that Huck is just a baby, and they let him wiggle his way into their food bowls whenever he wants.  He isn't too pushy about it, so they tolerate him well.

Here he is mowing some lawn for me...

 (The guinea hens are excellent desensitizing aids!)

Our weekly ground-skills lessons with Gail are going incredibly well.  Huckleberry is learning faster than I can teach him.  I am amazed at how quickly he picks up concepts, and even seems to ask, "OK, I got this one, what's next?"  Of course, some things take longer than others.  We are still working on maintaining a gait all the way around a circle, and stepping up onto unusual things is a challenge, but he is getting the idea.

Last week we got to play in the playground for a while.  The biggest challenge in the playground for everyone was keeping our horses' attention away from the green grass under their feet long enough to try a new obstacle!  Huck did everything very well except for stepping up onto the tree stump.  That will come in time. 

Here he is after backing all the way up this embankment with very little rope wiggling from me!

Good boy!

And checking out a new trailer...

We had to get in, and out of everyone's trailers.  Would you believe, he didn't even hesitate on anyone else's trailer??  He climbed right into a stock trailer, and even backed himself out!  I couldn't believe it!  (We still don't even do our own trailer that well!)

And finally standing on the pedestal:

"Ta da!!"

Until next week!
~Jackie

6 months now... Wow!

April 13, 2011

Alicia speaking this time... (I know, you can hardly believe it, Jackie probably fell out of her chair!)... but what's really hard to believe - its been SIX months since I brought the freaked out baby stallion home...what a difference six months makes.

I went by Jackie's place last week to trim her horses hooves, including Doc's, whoops...I meant Huckleberry...reminds me of pie... maybe we could call him Pie... anyway, his toes on the front were a mile long and he's sporting horizontal hairlines on all four feet...not good....note to self: trim the horse more often Alicia! Jeez!

And the rest of Huckleberry...WOW! He put on muscle climbing those hills at Jackie's place... he looks great! Even his icky legs look so much better. She's done such a great job!

He was a perfect gentleman while having his front feet trimmed - BIG DIFFERENCE from our last attempt at trimming! He was a pro with the hoofjack. Another big round of Applause for Jackie!!! HOORAY!!!.

He's very 'upright' in the front end, I went after those heels, and was pleased to see a better angle once I was done, with no apparent soreness either. And well the hinds, he can't bring them out behind himself nor up underneath himself, heck he can't even really stand on one at a time, so I am grateful that he does a half way decent job on his own.

He is such a kind and gentle fella...a really nice horse. Kudos to you Jackie, as you are the reason he is so wonderful....truly.

I apologize for no pictures... just wanted to check in... mostly to give big props to Jackie... the hero to all black and white paint horses.
Love ya Jackie Legs!

-Alicia

P.S. We need to test him for HYPP dang it!