The good and the gassy

Oh sweetness 74 degrees in the middle of November!

April 2010

I decided to work Hampton out in the hayfield today. Things started out a little rough - he was distracted and wanted to look around. But he wasn't bad. Once we worked through that, he ended up relaxing and I was able to do leg yields, shoulder-in and a few steps of renvers right out in the middle of the field! This was far more impressive for me, than for the horse. The lack of any wall or fence really made me pay attention to my aids. The fact that Hampton has never done renvers before was also pretty neat that I was able to get a few steps of it. Woot!

Toward the end of our workout, he had already pooed about 3 times. Not totally unusual for him. He pooed two more times on the walk back to the barn. Hmmmm. Then he started showing signs that he was gassy. Ohhhhh k. So I untacked him and cooled him out. Seemed better. I thought maybe working out in the field had perhaps made him nervous - there was a big scary farm machine grooming the field next door. I went ahead and fed him half his grain ration and his hay. Scarfed those up. Ok cool. Went to lead him back out to field and he pooes again - this time it's scours. Ugh. So I put him back in the stall with another flake of hay. Weird. He is otherwise bright, alert, no temp, pink gums, etc. Is it because the pressure is about to plummet? Maybe they got a really rich roundbale outdoors?

I watched him for another 20 minutes and no more "deposits." I put him back out and he got a big drink of water (like he usually does) and begged for a treat. I figured it was best he was outside to walk around if he was having some gas. I hope that's all it is. Poor guy.