After last night’s door kicking behaviour, Susan elected to turn Xena out immediately after her evening grain. Now that our Catching Game is almost predictable, I was able to catch her easily at the round bale.
Summer is coming to an end and our August evenings are noticeably shorter. It’s Friday and as usual the barn is busy, and less daylight means more riders are using the indoor arena. Instead of rushing into the arena, I decided to forego my plans of playing with Xena, and instead take my time grooming her, and soaking and bandaging her foot.
This is the 4th time I’ve soaked her foot, and Xena continues to be very patient. As I was bent over wrapping her foot in the baby diaper, I happened to glance under my elbow only to see her head hanging low to the ground, directly behind my legs. For whatever reason, she stayed like that for quite a while, and every so often I’d reach back and rub her nose. Perhaps she was watching me wrap her foot!
At the end of the evening the arena was finally free, so I decided to test of her trot. I haven’t asked her to trot in over a week, although her walk is quite improved. I asked her for just a couple of circles in each direction. Going to the right her trot was almost perfectly normal, but to the left she was still noticeably hesitant and heavy on her forehand. Her head bobbed a bit with each stride, and her foot appears to be still somewhat tender. Some of this could be because she’s wearing her new bandage, so I’ll try again tomorrow before I change her bandage.
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