Gymnastics

Soonie did his first real gymnastic exercise tonight.  Trot poles to a crossrail, one stride to a small vertical, one stride to a small oxer.  We worked up from poles of course, but he got it pretty quickly and we added each element.  He's super honest and tries so hard.  He was quiet (too quiet!) and relaxed as usual, very ho-hum about the exciting gymnastic stuff.  Like...I don't know if my legs are really strong enough for how quiet he is, and I've always had a really strong leg.  He's lazy lesson pony quiet.  NOT complaining though! :)

In other news, day two of big turnout went well again.  He came in completely intact, and didn't walk the fenceline as much as he did yesterday.  I'll give him a few weeks to settle into the new routine and large group turnout.  If he doesn't enjoy himself out there, we'll go back to the small group, limited turnout if he honestly prefers it.  To be fair, that is a HUGE jump in term of space and number of other horses, and I know it's a big transition for him to make.  I'm just hoping he puts his Big Horse Pants on and figures out that being outside with other horses is fun.  Seeing that it went even better today, I am hopeful.  I guess we'll see!

We wrapped up his ulcer treatment, and I can officially say I'm quite sure he doesn't have ulcers (yay!).  Very fancy medication had zero affect on him, so his minor weight loss in August really was just from the stupid heatwave/horsefly invasion from hell.  And his increased cribbing was most likely due to him wearing a cribbing strap, which only frustrated him and made him do it more.  Oh well.  No more cribbing strap (he's starting to chill out on the cribbing thank goodness), his weight is good now and had started coming back before I started the ulcer treatment.  Overall, very good news and I'm happy to report I'm glad I spent the money and put him through the month of treatment just in case.