Buck has a lesson with Meredith

I did something TERRIBLE to my back the other day...and since then I have not been able to really walk, let alone RIDE. So instead of my weekly lesson, I took Buck for a ride with Meredith.

I have been working with Meredith Scarlet since October of 2008. At that point Buck was just walking and trotting - not on the bit, and certainly not bent or flexed properly! So the last few months we have been working with him on the flat mostly, with some jump schools thrown in between. It's REALLY strange to have a horse that is better at jumping then dressage! WOWEE. What a strange reality I have!

Anyways, Meredith had a pretty good ride today. She rode A LOT of trot->walk transitions to get him off his face. Buck's MO is to bear down like he's plowing a field. And then he gets "stuck" there because HE thinks he's doing it right! LOL. So lots of transitions, and doing different "things" during the work. Some of the things she did today besides transitions was lots of leg yielding. Leg yielding in to every transition, leg yielding to get more bend, etc, etc. The canter work STILL has a lot to be desired. He previously would THROW his head up in the air, brace against his neck and lean around the corners a la motorcycle style. EEEEK. Today she got good transitions, and he wasn't bracing his neck. Still not round, and still against the hand aid (read: giraffe) but definitely better than before!

Hopefully I'll be able to ride again SOON....it's supposed to be FRIGIDLY cold over the next few days so I won't be riding anyways.

Buck's Allergies?

So back in December Buck was fed a not-so-good flake of hay....and then promptly started coughing. Unfortunately Buck didn't STOP coughing and I ended up having the vet come out
promptly. That vet told me to give him some Benadryl....well after a week of Benadryl and still
coughing, I called another vet. She came out and listened to his lungs, bagged him (to hear any crackling) and perscribed 8 mL/day of Ventipulmin.

The ventipulmin helped - no more coughing....but once I started discontinuing the cough started up again. We put him BACK on the venti....4 mL/day in the AM. And now we're adding Prednisol - 18 tabs per feeding for 10 days, and then discontinuing it slowly.