10/11/07 Hauled him down to New Skye for Jeff to hunt and then take home. Jeff said he was great on the hunt, which is music to my ears.

10/3/07 Worked him for 20 minutes in trot and canter, with only short walk breaks. That is actually a lot more work for a horse than it sounds. He did well.

10/1/07 Rode him in the indoor working on balance and transition issues. He did very well and produced some good work and remains quite sound and happy to go.

9/28/07 Two mile hack with balancing rein to encourage him to let go to the right. He did well and the two miles was easy for him.

9/26/07 6 mile road hack and he is feeling good. Even good-naturedly bucked once in canter after 4 miles. Didn't favor the right hind when untacking. Wonderful.

9/24/07 4 mile road hack. The first ten steps were off in back. He worked out of it quickly, though so I am thinking it was due to the rocks just outside the back door. Otherwise, went well.

9/22/07 25 minutes of mostly trot and canter. Went very well.

9/19/07 Long break due to AECs, but back at it today with a two mile road hack. Did very well.

9/8/07 Road hack to Mary Beth Evans' house, but she wasn't home. Wah. Nice hack anyway. He thought that the mailbox that was being held by a scarecrow in coveralls was very scary, which actually showed good sense!

9/5/07 Road hack of about 4 miles. A little looky, but feeling good.

9/3/07 Worked in the arena on bending and flexibility, went well.

8/30/07 Trimmed and new shoes. Same size, but my farrier suggests that toe clips should not be bent in as far as they are bent in on the shoes he had on. Not good for the hoof. After re-set I rode him in the arena, working on flexibility and he did well.

8/28/07 Road hack, 4 miles at a trot. Stellar.

8/27/07 Longed him and he looked much better than when we first started. Had a pretty good workout on the longe.

8/22/07 Three mile hack at a trot. Did fine.

8/17/07 2.5 mile conditioning hack at a trot. Did very well. Felt sound.

8/15/07 Went on a walk and trot hack to start on his conditioning and discuss relaxing in his poll. He actually feels under saddle better than he looked on the longe yesterday. That's good.

8/13/07 Longed. Despite the fact that he bucked to show how good he felt, he is slightly unsound on his right hind. We will see if slow work can help build him back up.

5/29/07 Hauled home for shoeing and a break at home.

5/25/07 2 miles of trot with a little walk. Much discussion about staying relaxed in his poll. Went well.

5/23/07 Warmed up with in hand work then some flexibility things under saddle. Then off for some trot work outside. Went well.

5/19/07 30 minutes of walk and trot, about 4 miles. Discussion concerning proper response to rein aids.

5/16/07 5 miles walk and trot hack. Did great.

5/14/07 Did some ground work and then in saddle work, focusing on walking and trotting in a soft and relaxed manner. It was more work than he thought it was going to be... :-)

5/3/07 Half hour walk. He's a good boy.

5/2/07 Half an hour of walk. Went great. He seems to enjoy it, though he continues to occasionally suggest trot...

5/1/07 Twenty minute walk hack on the trail. He feels very good and suggests trot a lot...

4/30/07 Walk trail hack for half an hour with Denise, past the scary cows which he found unimpressive. Very good.

4/29/07 Brought him in and spent time in beauty shop. I wanted to make sure his legs were cleaned up so that I could see any inflammatory process while we are bringing him back from his tendon injury. He had some impressive mud balls on his fetlock hair, which I got off and then trimmed the hair. Also banged his tail and shortened his mane. He looks worlds better and enjoyed the process. Then got on and rode around the arena for 10 minutes in walk, the first few minutes of which he suggested that he could buck. Then we went out on the trail for the last ten minutes. This first week we are to do 20 minutes of walk only.

4/25/07 Raining and miserable, but the good news was that today was his day to go to the vet school for his opthalmic appointment so he got to go and be in a dry stall there. Dr. Betts said that the ghost on his pupil is not due to injury or inflammatory process. It is mineralization that is not likely to get worse. He could get it off, but it could scar and not worth the risk. The size of it is relatively small in comparison to his pupil and he should be able to just move his eye or head to compensate for the slight blurred area. Rx: not to worry! Great news.

4/24/07 Raining and cruddy out, so put a NZ blanket on him to keep him dry. He liked it. :-)

4/22/07 Settling in with the herd well.

4/20/07 Dr. Howard looked at his eye and said she has never seen anything quite like it. Recommended that he sees the opthalmologist. Set up for Wednesday.

4/19/07 Picked him up at Jeff and Pam's. Stayed overnight at our place. His left eye has a little "ghost" on it, a cloudy area, but not round in shape.

9/4/06 Took Arrow home to do his recuperation there. Back to ISU for follow up in a month.

8/31/06 Took him up to ISU. Small tear in his deep digital flexor tendon. Pblblblblbl. Phooey. 30 days of slow work and then move back up.

8/30/06 Started to take him out on a hack, but he was more unsound than his usual slightly off self. Called Jeff with update and we will see if we can get him in at ISU tomorrow.

8/28/06 3 mile hack. He started out a little stiff on the right hind, but came out of it. He has some swelling above his fetlock and it is sensitive to palpation. I suspect that since he is now able to use the leg correctly (chiropractor and more correct shoeing) that the tendons are being taxed. I wonder if he should have it looked at at ISU. Thinking.

8/26/06 4 mile hack with balancing reins to help him unlock his right side. Went quite well.

8/24/06 4 mile hack, mostly at trot and canter after a walk warmup. Went very well. When we got home he stood evenly behind in the cross ties, where in the past he wanted to rest that right hind right away. After a rinse and roll, he then rested the right hind. It isn't strong yet, but seems on the right track. His eye looks good. Today was the last day of treatment. I'll talk to Roy to see how to proceed.

8/22/06 Hoof trim and reset. He took a lot off. Hooves look stellar.

8/21/06 Eye continues to improve. 2.5 mile trot and canter hack after a warm up. It went well, except on the way home when cooling out he was tripping a lot. I think he may not be getting enough fat in his diet with the Ultium alone without added fat. I started to add fat again tonight.

8/20/06 I've been treating his eye 5 times per day with the prednisolone acetate and also doing the once per day banamine and twice per day triple antibiotic. He is out with a supermask during the day and in at night. His eye is improving, but not perfect yet. On the mission.

8/19/06 5 mile all walk trail ride, good for slow twitch muscle building. Treated his eye with steroids 5 times today. Looking improved, but not out of the woods.

8/17/06 Roy came out and examined his eye. He has uveitis, which, if not halted, can become chronic and affect his sight. So far his sight is not affected. I am to treat him with banamine once a day and topical steroids 5 times a day. Took him for a 4 mile mostly trot hack and he felt pretty good, though he was resting that left hind at the end.

8/16/06 I've been treating his eye and working on his ground manners while we give that right hind some time to readjust. His eye is improved but still not right. A little puffy and hurts some. Roy is going to come out tomorrow to look at it. I hacked him out with Katie and Claude, intending to just walk. After about a half mile of walk, he felt great, so we did some trot and he felt much improved. Not absolutely even, but close and very happy to go. Wonderful. We did mostly walk and trot, with a little canter through the rest of the ride, which was 4.5 miles. Excellent.

8/9/06 His eye looks even a little better and I saw him trot in the paddock this early morning. He looked improved.

8/8/06 He still looks uneaven in back, but he is much improved. I will reserve judgement for a few days while the muscles work back into place in his neck. Meanwhile, his eye looks 40% better, with him holding it more open. He is an angel for being medicated. He is staying in a stall during the day, and out at night to protect his eye.

8/7/06 Took him to the chiropractor which happens to be at a vet's office. The good news is that the chiropractor found a lot of things out of place including his C3 vertebra being subluxated and his hips being tipped and a shoulder out. He said that the difficulty he is having in back could well be due to what was happening in his neck, as the nerve impulses can really be hindered by subluxations. Arrow's eye continues to be very painful to him, so I asked Brad Gordon DVM to look at it. He is somewhat of a specialist with eyes so he was almost excited to take a look. He ended up sedating Arrow, staining the eye and finding a coronary edema, which is apparently a very painful thing, right up there with kidney stones and childbirth. They injected some steroids near the eye and he is to have banamine twice a day, atropine once a day and triple antibiotic three times a day.

7/17/06 Took him to the ISU Vet school to see the opthalmologist. He says that the horse is lucky with the placement of the puncture. It is just on the edge of his cornea. The reason he is still squinting a bit is that the eye was spasming a little bit which apparently happens when the cornea is involved. He said the eye looks good and the injury is healed and scarred over fine. Antibiotic is no longer necessary. He put atropine in it to dilate the pupil just a bit so that it will stop spasming and therefore feel better to him. For the next 7 days when he is out, he should have a supermask on.

7/16 I am a little concerned that the grey spot in his eye persists and he indicates that it still hurts a little. Pondering taking him up to ISU to see the opthalmologist.

7/12/06 Treated his eye 3 times again. The cloudiness he had in his eye is gone, but the one point where the original injury is is still obvious. I wish it would heal faster as eye injuries are nothing to fool around with. It seems on the right track but will continue to monitor carefully. Rode him in the outdoor, with a lot of emphasis on proper response to rein aids. He is quite nervous about the bit and tends to resist in every direction. We had some quiet discussions about that and he started to follow the rein by the end. He is definitely uneven behind in back, and it may be due to the healed over scar tissue from his injury last fall. When he is being groomed or resting, he usually rests that leg, which has me a little concerned. They should stand on all 4 or rest them equally. All that being said, I did some canter work to see how that would go and it went well.

7/11/06 I treated his eye 3 times and it is looking somewhat better, but the scratch is still clearly visible. He needs to stay in another day at least. I put him in the cross ties and did a little beauty shop to his legs and tail. The injury on his right hind has healed well, but the scar tissue actually impedes the flextion of the joint. I wonder if that is proud flesh healed over. If so, I do not think it is a difficult thing for a vet to remove and I understand it heals quickly. Maybe talk to Dixon about that when he comes out for Dallas. I tacked up and rode in the arena. I actually walked him around first, reminding him to be polite and walk with his neck down with a soft contact to the bit. It took a little reminding, but he got back into the groove of it. Then I rode around mostly at a walk, asking pretty much the same thing, polite contact with the bit. He is reluctant to bend right, but most horses are. We talked about that for a bit and made a nice start in the flexibility department. Did some trot work and it was hard to tell if he was just slipping in the wet sand or if he was slightly uneven. At any rate, he did very well and the eye seems to be on the right track.

7/10/06 Had the vet out to look at his right eye. I have been treating it with neobacymx twice a day. Vet said that is the right thing. 3 times per day would be better, and keep him out of the sun until eye is healed. Can do. Drew blood for a coggins

7/8/06 Brought Arrow home from the hunt trail ride. Settled him in. Did just fine. Pam said that his right eye looked a little funny to her.

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