When I last gave a Shorty update, it was back in July. It's been nearly two months now.
I'm happy to say that Shorty has been slowly but steadily improving. The swelling has gone down significantly, as well as his pain level, and we've reduced his Bute dosage to half the amount.
If he keeps improving at this rate, maybe he'll be sound again by November? I don't know. But it is so nice to see improvement without any drastic setbacks, like we've experienced two or three times before. He still limps around, but not as badly as before, and otherwise acts like a normal horse.
I believe now that he might be rideable again. But I won't be doing that until he's quite sound, and when I do, I'll be very slow about it.
In the meantime, I've began to do very short sessions (at the most ten minutes at a time) of in hand work with him. I managed to get a beautiful teal colored whip to use. It's actually a 'pig whip' for showing pigs, but as a dressage whip it works fine.
I'm managed to teach him that when I tap him with the whip, he's to go forward, although we're still working on this. My second, bigger issue is learning how to manage the rein in the hand holding the whip, without the whip going everywhere.
Another problem of late has been the flies. They've been terrible around his eyes and belly. So, to help combat that, I bought some 'Happy Horse Fly Ointment'. It's a natural alternative to SWAT and seems to be working pretty well so far.
So, that's the Shorty update!
9/22/2022
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2022 Riding Journey
Non-FictionThis is my riding journey for 2022. I have my 2021 riding journey also available here on Wattpad, which is complete at 69 entries. This chronicles my 2022 riding journey, I record my lessons with my trainer, post updates on my horse Shorty, write...
