Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Next Day

The next day we hauled up to the 2nd barrel race and when we unloaded, Moon was again a bit sore over his loin. Even though he had not been before we left and it was only a 40 mile trip. But he wasn't as sore as he had been the day before. The vet had told me it might take a couple of days for everything to settle down again and of course, there is still the possibility of the feed affecting his kidneys or an infection, which would take a few days to work itself out.

I gave him 2 grams of bute, hand walked and massaged him til he was once again relaxed and dozing. During warm-up he was still hesitating, but he didn't feel as he was as uncomfortable as he was before.

Since he had been such a booger about going in the gate the night before, I was concerned he was going to do it again. One bad gate night is not much cause for concern. Two in a row...spells trouble brewing.

But Moon walked right up the L-shaped alley and gawked around the arena. I was really hoping he would pick up that 1st barrel, so I gave him a few seconds. This was not the same kind of run we had going as the night before. Too much other stuff on my mind I guess...



I can just about count out 2-10ths we lost on 1st barrel and at least 2-3 more 10ths we lost getting to and around 3rd. I have NO IDEA what the hell I was doing letting him get so wide at 3rd. It's like I just sat there and let him fade out. I hollered at him...LOL...but did nothing to bring him back in line until we were at the barrel. Sheez!



Spooks on the other hand, had his best run yet...



You can see where he is losing time, coming out of 1st and coming out of 2nd. But, like I have said, he is still very green. These things will come to him, but he sure is trying to run harder.

Megan picked up a few more points in the Youth division on him and is now tied for the lead. The outcome will all rest on the last two races at the Finals.

I did end up picking up checks on both horses though. Moon placed 3rd in the 2D and Spooks placed 2nd in the 4D.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any chance trailering is making him sore? Just a thought! ~spotz58

Danielle Michelle said...

Yeah for the checks however!

Now that I'm thinking...I wonder if 'beans' may be my geldings issue....he was craaanky last week on the ranch...thanks for putting the thought in my head...

kestrel said...

No applause folks, just throw money, haha!

It's sure coming together. Yay for both horses.

Barbara said...

Congrats and Spook is sure turning into a good barrel horse.

We also schedule a vet visit for our gelding that has been having a sore back.

Barbara

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Trailering sure makes him reactive spotz, but I don't think it's the cause. I've hauled him too many miles in this trailer with no problems to believe that to be the case.

I will say that I am not that enamored of the forward slant. I think hauling a horse in that position does add stress to the front legs as well as the back. It's not a natural position for a horse to have to stand in when they need to balance themselves.

I've contemplated doing a couple of different things with the dividers, so I can haul horses in the reverse slant position but finally decided to just take out the first 2 dividers and leaving the back one. My horses are used to hauling in a stock trailer type setting and I don't worry about them all being together, but I wanted to leave that last slot with a divider in it for L's little mare since she is going to be hauling with me to some of these big races.

(Nice to 'see' you again though. It's been awhile.)

Crystal said...

Interesting find about the beans! I have a mare that is sore in the loins all the time, not so sore she reacts visibley, just enough you can see its a little sore. But we figured out if she is sore there the rest of her is fine, if we try to fix the loin soreness she gets sore all over (and cranky!) Wish she has a bean I could clean out, lol.

Cut-N-Jump said...

Nice to be in the money with both horses. Yay Meg! Whoopin it up in the standings.

Spooks sure came off of #3 nice. When he hits his stride he is going to be the one to beat.

Anonymous said...

Question: Do you ever have a reaction when you're using DMSO? I've heard people will get a bad taste in their mouth, etc. when apply DMSO. I currently have a little filly who got snakebit, when the vet put on DMSO this morning him and my horse-trainer neighbor were talking about how nasty it is. Yet when I applied it this afternoon, it didn't bother me in the least! Just curious...

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

BK-DMSO doesn't give me much more than a slight metallic taste in my mouth either, but some people say it gives them a very bad after taste.

I don't know why it affects some people so much and others very little or not at all.

Shirley said...

It's kinda coming together for you... of course, near to the end of the season! Congrats on being in the money.

cdncowgirl said...

Well congrats on being in the money on both the boys!! And way to go Miss Megs!! :)

Really watched Spooks run... now keep in mind that I know YOU are WAY more experienced than me when I say this - do you think if you two hand him a bit more to first and two hand him to second it will help? Just a though :)
Also 3rd looks really good but it also looks like he's starting to lean, like when he really gets rolling he may start dropping that shoulder. Of course that could be partly due to the angle the video was shot at.

Anonymous said...

I've been here (except for a couple of weeks due to storm damage), but I've been learning a lot from you and didn't have anything intellegent to contribute!~spotz58

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Cdn-Get's rolling?

LOL-Spooks is running about as hard as he can and he is not overly impressed with that.

I really appreciate that people think he is going to get a lot faster, but in reality...he isn't. He'll get smoother and more confident, which will take a little more time off of his runs, but the best I think he will ever be is a 3D horse (around here...I doubt he would even rate that high at bigger runs.).

Spooks is proof that you can turn any horse into a respectable 'barrel horse'. He's big, heavy-footed, straight-shouldered and has a funky hip. He lacks length of stride when he runs between the barrels and the fluidity necessary to turn gracefully.

He's come a long way this year and I think there are still things I can do with him to improve him, but he is mostly one of those horses that is what they are. You just have to appreciate his willingness and try. He's been exceptionally consistent, which is pretty amazing considering he only has 12 competition runs on him.

About the hands-I do still 2-hand him almost all the way to 1st barrel. Once he locks on, I have to let go. When I first started running him, I was 2-handing him almost all the way through the pattern, but he doesn't like that. He doesn't like pressure on his face and prefers not to be pulled on-which you can see when he is coming out of 2nd barrel. I got a little heavy handed bringing him around and he started waving his head. As soon as I let go of him, he lined right out for 3rd barrel.

Remember the video of Megan running him in just a snaffle where he was gapping? She was 2-handing him all the way through and even in a smooth snaffle, it was too much pressure on his face. He's more of a neck-reiner.

At 3rd, he ran into it straight. I just have a bad habit of missing my last look point and dropping my shoulder. Moon makes the same kind of turn when I do that. I think I am missing that last look point on 2nd too. At least I did on both horses that day.