Injury

Wednesday's lesson wasn't very pretty. T-Bone was fresh (the weather had suddenly changed and it had gotten to 40 degrees that night), and so the entire lesson I spent mostly on relaxation. He just would not wear down - I trotted and trotted, cantered, galloped, changed directions, all to no avail. It was just one of those days. He did have moments of brilliance tho, which I was quite pleased with. We started work on half-steps, which didn't last long due to his mindset. We also worked on collected canter which is improving quite a bit.

What bothered me was that he was getting so irritable during lateral work. Teeth grinding, locking his jaw, slinging his head at times. This is totally out of character for him - even on a fresh day - so I was getting a little concerned. Was I doing something wrong? I checked the bridle, his tongue was not over the bit or anything. So, we just ended the lesson on a good note.

It was after I had untacked him that I noticed what the problem probably was. Right on the inside of both of his hind ankles were two big gashes/rubs. They were fresh and bloody and about silver dollar size. He had been hitting himself the entire time! Gah! I have never had to wrap or boot his hind legs, but you bet I will be now! So I am giving him a couple days off so that those can heal a little bit. Poor guy! We have been started a lot of difficult movements which includes much leg yielding and shoulder in so I bet in his efforts to balance himself and try to place his feet right, he's hit himself. Its boots or wraps from now on!