Quick Update

Thus far my decision to go back to turning Ben out was absolutely the right one. He's a bit of a stress ball in the way Yoshi and Zing were not. In addition to just being really no fun for me to try to walk in hand or under saddle, it was making me cringe to see how unhappy and stressed he was. He's not a brave horse to begin with, and with all the extra... energy from being stuck in the stall, he was just about exploding in every direction. And while the lip chain kept him from exploding onto me, he clearly was unhappy about it.

Happy ears.. might've let his mane get outta control while he's been off 

Post bath, happy and grazing

Kiddo has been getting 1800mg of trazodone with breakfast then going out in his hoof boots for the next 4-5 hours. And he is soooooo much happier. Like his brain has slowed down again. And he looks happier in his body. He will stand relaxed behind instead of weird and wide (which quickly returned after his adjustment). The first day of turnout he did bounce around a bit, probably for a minute total, but with a bit of leg flinging, which seems to be his favorite move, and prancing. He rolled probably 5-6 times, no surprise, he loooooves a good wallow. He limited the sliding stops, but bounced up and down a bit. I was holding my breath some. But the next day under saddle I trotted a 20m circle both ways and he still felt SOUND. And we could just TROT the 20m circle without exploding or flailing. 

Since the first day, he has restrained himself to just a bit of trotting. Excellent. Considering we were doing some spinning in circles and bolting both in hand and under saddle, I'm telling myself this is an improvement. 

And with time working the way it does, we're now just 2 - 2.5 weeks away from his recheck appointment. Fingers crossed we get a good report then. He's still pointing one toe or the other sometimes. I don't love that. But I may also be over analyzing everything now. 

In non-horsey news, Pico cat decided to give me a heart attack this week. She had gotten progressively lethargic and anorexic over the past two weeks and really went downhill the past 3-4 days. Bloodwork just showed dehydration. Initially fluids, cerenia (anti-nausea), and mirtazapine (appetite stimulant) weren't doing anything. But this morning I woke up and she ran down the hallway to greet me! She hadn't done that in a week! I'm still keeping her abdominal ultrasound and chest x-ray appointments today, but I'm hopeful we're on the right track. 

I just adore her