A New Year and a 2 Month Sentence

Happy New Year!  2014 came in freezing, icy, and snowy, but at least it came in!  I spent New Year's Day with Best Husband Ever, Moose, and Nox, so I think it was a pretty good start, even if the wind chill was -15.

Starting off 2014 at the barn!

Nox has been on stall rest for seven weeks for a torn ligament in his right hind leg, and it's been a bumpy seven weeks.  He's regressed back into some of his old bad habits, like chewing on the lead rope and nipping at me.  I've learned that the best way to eradicate this bad behavior is to back him up quickly and forcefully across the ring - he responds well to aggressive and dominant behavior.  If I'm dominant, he acts like a puppy.  Unfortunately, I can't do that to him with this injury, so I have to try to distract him from the bad habits.  The poor horse is just bored out of his mind.  He loves having a job to do and challenges to face.  He's going crazy just hanging out in his stall.  

Today Dr. Meg, the lameness specialist, came back to evaluate Nox's progress.  I hoped that she would clear him for some light work - even some slow hand-walking would be great.  She watched him free lunge and did a flexion test, and even I could see that he was still lame.  There was some improvement, Dr. Meg estimated a 65% improvement, but not enough to be cleared for any work.  He's got 2 more months of what she called "modified stall rest".  I can take him out of his stall for 15 minutes, 5 days a week, for a few slow walking laps around the ring and some brain training.  She gave me a few ideas to engage his mind and continue our training without having to move too much.  Hopefully, this will help his boredom and his behavior!

So, two more months of rest and then another evaluation.  I'm just glad that this is happening in winter, when it's too cold and icy to go outside anyway.  I'll keep everyone posted on our progress!

Nox, hoping for a "get out of jail free" card.  Not today, buddy!