Best Laid Plans

What's that saying, "If you wanna hear God laugh, just tell Him your plans?"

Last Tuesday (9/21) I took Diego over to a local arena and let him run around and really stretch his legs. He loves to do this and I enjoy watching him clearly having a very good time. Even though it was dark (7:30 pm), I saddled him up when he was done and rode around for about 30 minutes or so. He did excellent and felt really good, very forward and wanting to go, but soft and listening. He did a few little boingities, but nothing much, which I was glad for since I've been riding in my Solstice (an english saddle) lately. Made firm plans to ride with Funder on Saturday (9/25) and do the 25 mile ride out in Red Rock, to check everything and make sure we were good to go for our first 50-miler at Comstock this coming Saturday, 10/2.

Well... so much for plans. Saturday I got Diego all booted up and ready to go, loaded into the trailer, picked up Funder and Dixie, and when we got to Red Rock, Diego came off the trailer lame. =( Pretty obvious consistent head bob on the left front, especially on a circle to the left. He felt good, and still wanted to "go", but I wasn't going to ride with him like that obviously, so instead he got to hang out in the convienently located cow corrals and I did P&R's. As it worked out, Dixie got a bit unmotivated as well, so Funder cut her ride short and didn't do the full 25. I have withdrawn my entry to Comstock.

While Diego looked better as the day wore on, and has continued to improve, I'm certainly not going to stress him with a long ride this weekend. As for now, I'm hand-walking him daily and will probably do a short ride on Thursday if he continues to look good. I'm thinking about maybe entering a ride later this month, but want to take him out for a ~20-miler at some point first in order to judge his continued soundness. We'll just take things easy for now and see how stuff develops. No more firm plans...

Riding or Racing

Adapted from a different source. Perhaps the most eloquent way to put it that I have seen:

There are many endurance RIDERS, but only a few endurance RACERS. Many of us do these things to test ourselves and our horses. We do it for the love of the sport. Our only competitors are ourselves, the course, and the conditions. There have been many times when I was "racing", and no one else was aware of it.

Diego's Hooves 9/14/10

Photos are here as Blogger is a pain for uploading and formatting this many:
Diego's Hooves 091410

Looking for comments and suggestions. I just picked his hooves and then took him out and lunged him on the asphalt for about 5 minutes so you can see where he's striking the ground with his hoof. He does appear to have a nice even toe first landing on all four feet. He recently sloughed his frogs on the front feet; I'm waiting for the rears to follow suit... ? His feet are really dirty cause he walks into his manure pile every time to go poop. =P Even when I've just cleaned the corral, they'll look like this after a day or so.

We're three weeks out from the last trim. THESE ARE ALL PRE-TRIM, so I can take the suggestions into consideration when I trim him in the next day or two. Things I see that need work are:

1. Continue bringing back his toes on the front hooves. Needs an update to his mustang roll all around.
2. Continue to manage the flare on the fronts. I've been rasping out the sidewall in this area to alleviate any pressure and gradually working on rasping down from the outside of the hoof to eliminate this bulk.
3. I think I can take his entire front hoof shorter all the way around? Last time I rasped to be even with the heel of his frog, but in looking at these pics, I think I can take everything shorter still... ?
4. His bars are always a point on concern. They just continue to grow out at a faster rate than the rest of his hoof. I trimmed them back pretty heavily several months ago, they were very long and overlaid. Trimmed them down to below the level of the sole. Now they're not overlaid, but they continue to really grow. When I trimmed 3 weeks ago, I took them down to the level of his sole, you can see how much they've grown since then. Looks like I really need to take down the rears again. Why do they continue to grow like this and should I continue to take them down? I've read conflicting information on this. He seemed a bit sore when I first really pared them out.

Other thoughts or suggestions?

Happy 6th Birthday to Diego

Today is Diego's 6th Birthday! Happy Birthday Diego!

As a yearling in Arizona












Watermelon "present" this morning. MMmm.... nom, nom, nom

He's looking a bit "well covered" right now. =) Excuse the filth, I was on my way to work this morning and didn't have time to brush off the night-time sleepy mess.

Diego says thank you. Happy Birthday Digs!