Updates and a Tribute

Last weekend, I had lunch with my friend Heather.  Naturally, we talked about our horses and I asked her to look at the video of Jackson I posted last week.  She noticed that his left hind looked off which initially surprised me, then made perfect sense.  I watched the video and agreed -- he was definitely short striding with the hind in trot work.  I had his hocks injected a year ago.  The issues at that time were similar to what I am experiencing now such as his inability to carry weight back or work through his body.  It also caused stumbling which I have noticed as well.  I have been so focused on his feet, that I neglected to look at the whole picture.  I sent the video to my vet and she agreed -- problems possibly in the hind as well as soreness still in the front.  Next week she will be up on the ranch so I snagged an appointment.  She will evaluate everything and we will decided on the next course of action.  On the positive side, his course of GastroGuard for colonic ulcers seems to have worked well.  His manure has stayed normal even with a new load of hay (previously guaranteed to cause problems) and he is packing on weight like nobody's business. 

I have posted a tribute poem to Masterpiece on my other blog.  For those of you who don't follow The Skoog Farm Journal , you really should take a look.  Lori lost one of her horses yesterday.  He was 32 years old, he was the first horse on their farm and they had him for 30 years.  Even when it's time, and it was, it is still hard to let them go.  Very hard.