The Riding/Training - Prima & Elvis

Prima

Prima started her diet and exercise regimen last week.  She was wearing a grazing mask 12 hours a day and getting ridden at a brisk walk for an hour each day.  Well, that was what the vet recommended.  I have only been able to ride her for an hour once this week.  I tried getting home before dark one of the days I worked, but didn't make it.  And this weekend we are not able to do farm things.  The one day we did do the walking, she found it pretty taxing, as the photo below shows.

I talked to the vet today and her blood work is back.  Everything looked good except her insulin levels.  She is officially "insulin intolerant".   So she is to go on an even stricter diet on Monday: only 4 hours without the muzzle, grass hay only and walking as close to every day as I can manage.  I asked if this was like di-obesity in humans, where there is organ and tissue damage from the insulin imbalance.  He said not usually, although sometimes there can be liver damage.  Prima's blood tests did not show that, though, and he thinks she will be fine once she loses the weight. 

I feel very badly that we let her get into this kind of trouble. 

The muzzle does not make her grumpy.  She is actually very good about it.  Perhaps she has had to wear one before. 

Elvis

All the horses got their shots and worming on Monday.  Elvis came down with absolutely terrible diahrrea on Tuesday afternoon.  The vet insists that it isn't from the shots or worming.  We kept him in and kept an eye on him for 36 hours and he seemed over it.  But I had a lesson on him Friday morning and he seemed to still be stiff and uncomfortable on his left side from the injection.  He even looked a little off on the left front when circling to the left.

We worked on the lunge, walk/trot/canter.  Mounted, we worked on turns on the forehand and turns on the haunches.   We worked on halt and rein back.  We worked on leg yields at the trot but had to go back to the walk because he was flinging himself willy nilly.  We ended up working on them down the centerline in both directions. He got a lot better.  I think I need to school him in spurs.  We did some sustained canter work using the whole arena.

The report today is that he is still a little off. I am supposed to be taking him to a clinic next weekend, so I hope it really is from the shot and not something more serious.