Fat Leg Club Membership revoked

There has been little going on in the horse world this past week, Mia's legs were nice and fat and slowly got better.  They are currently 90% back to normal and her fever didn't come back after the first day when the vet was out.  I gave her the entire week off last week, which meant it was closer to 2 weeks since I have ridden her, and did a bunch of housekeeping at the barn to take up my time.  Oh yes, and I also had to travel back to MI for a wedding which took up a good 4 days.

I now have 3 blankets for App and 1 for Mia at the barn, all in a cubby and neatly labeled.  The barn is more than willing to blanket App at their discretion, so App will likely be blanketed in some form until probably April.  My challenges with his weight are getting better, as I have stated before, he loses weight every year when he starts to grow his winter coat (Aug/Sept/Oct).  He lost close to 100 pounds this fall, despite being on Cool Calories and full pasture, so we threw him on a round bale, added a 2nd weight builder, upped his grain again and separated him from Mia at feeding time so she doesn't help herself.  It seems to have worked, he is not where I want him, weight wise, but he is pretty dang close.  You can now feel his ribs but they aren't obvious and he doesn't look thin anymore.  Win!  The horses were also moved to a dry lot to keep them out of mud and I think that has been helping as well.

I have had to increase App's Previcox to a full tablet, he had been on a half tablet since we got his official diagnosis.  I bumped it up to 3/4 of a tablet about a month ago and now he is on a full tablet starting this week.  Our vet says he should be on a full tab anyway, but the ortho vet who diagnosed him said to keep him on a 1/2 tab and increase as necessary.  Vets never really agree anyway but he is now on a full tab.  He is now also moved over to the new Equioxx, the FDA approved version of Previcox for horses.  Wooo.  Thankfully the cost is exactly the same and now apparently I have recourse against the manufacturer if there is an issue.  So there is that.

Last night I rode Mia for the first time in almost 2 weeks and had grand plans to stay nice and slow and low.  Some stretchy walk/trot, keep it about 20-30 minutes and call it a night.  The indoor was getting new footing while she was down and I was away, and it is ready today and not last night, so I had to ride outside.  Which wouldn't be so bad except the barn on the top of a fricken mountain and it gets really windy.  And it was 41 degrees.  And drizzly.  Ugh.  I brought 2 windbreakers and was thankful for both.  We started out with a walk and Mia had to look at all of the shadows from the outdoor arena lights and then didn't care.  She was, however, wired and ready to just go already.  Apparently having her in a smaller dry lot plus no riding for 2 weeks makes Mia almost unridable!  Good to know....  You can stop now.

I tried letting her just trot it out of her system but she just could not.  My only requests for the ride were to not cut corners, keep your head out of my face and to just trot.  She could not agree with those terms.  After breaking into a canter for a 2nd time, and giving a little buck/kick, she was thrown on a lunge line and I let her go until she wanted to stop.  And that took a little while.  After she had herself a little damp from sweat (despite cold/wind/mist) she finally settled down and could now go through trot poles without jumping all 3 at once.  Finally.  I hopped on and she was much more agreeable to my 3 requests so after 1.5 laps, I hopped off and called it a night.

Tonight we are going to try some actual work, apparently my plan of bringing her back slowly does not jive with her plan of needing more exercise.  Well, if nothing else I am glad to have my membership revoked to the Fat Leg Club, I did not enjoy its benefits.