It’s
spring, everybody! Tucker and I celebrated
by going out for a nice hack through all the flowers! Through the grass. Through the mud? Through…oh.
Right.
To be fair, the mud and grass is starting to emerge.
Maybe all is not lost?
I've been thinking about how useful it would be to have a visual history of Tucker's topline and thus a clearer sense of change over time. Honestly, I've been meaning to keep track for a while, but I feel so rotten about our saddle fit struggles and the impact on his back that I've deleted several photosets from my phone because it felt so awful even just scrolling past them in search of a funny picture of my dog.
But then I find myself wishing I hadn't. Clearly the solution to my private guilt is to arrange some public guilt instead! So I took some pictures yesterday, which was harder expected; Tucker will ground-tie like a rock in many situations but apparently being taken outside to get a decent full-body shot in light that doesn't FUBAR my poor phone camera is not on his list; he kept coming to visit me instead of posing. I got lots of pictures that look like this:
But this was the best we could do for a conformation snap:
And yes, that scapular swelling -- it's there on both sides -- is the source of all those awful feelings. I'm honestly not sure when it first appeared and I keep thinking it's gone away but then I'll look at him from a different angle or more closely for whatever reason and...well. I don't know if I've done him some permanent harm. I hope not. But I just don't know.
Anyway. For moment-in-time purposes, this is where we are now.
(On the bright side, I do know exactly when those white spots appeared and they do appear to be shedding out with his winter coat. Which would make me feel a little bit better. It's one thing to screw up in private and another thing to tell you guys about it and still a third worm-can to have your horse carrying those badges around. For the first time in my life, I see some appeal in owning a grey!)
I actually have jabberwocky memorized thanks to 7th grade english class
ReplyDeleteI no longer believe there is grass under our snow. Just more snow.
ReplyDeleteWhat would cause the scapular swelling? Does the saddle actually rest there or is it more of a reaction to a lack of shoulder freedom?
Tris has a white spot on his withers now, too. :( I wonder if it's easier for them to grow them as they age? He has certainly had less-than-ideally-fitting saddles before but never a hint of white. (Well, that I can tell.)
Scapular swelling:
Deletehttp://blog.easycareinc.com/blog/duncs-diatribe/that-big-trot
#2
:-/
We don't "big trot" -- Tuck goes down trail at a strong but well-within-himself working. But I assume a saddle fit/shoulder-clearance issue causes the same effect over enough miles.
DeleteHaving a gray doesn't always help. My gray's hair grows in red whenever he gets a cut or bad scrape so I'm assuming saddle marks would show up the same way. He has some crazy red lines in various places on his body where he's gotten scratched or bit and one that I know of that is from a kick.
ReplyDeleteI hope the saddle situation has been sorted out for you guys!
Ha, that sounds crazy to look at! And does make me feel better. Getting a grey that did that would be just my luck. *g*
DeleteI am not ashamed to admit that the best thing about owning a paint is the solid white back.
ReplyDeleteWell, and pintos are cool-looking! I would suffer through cleaning white parts for the right spotty pattern. All grey, though? Not so much.
Delete(Not so much the me-suffering-through-it, that is. Greys can certainly look cool.)
DeleteYour conformation photos came out way better than I could do without a photographer/holder!
ReplyDeleteGood job. Hope you get more sunshine soon and that you work out your saddle situation :) I was super thankful for a grey mare when we had troubles with saddle's fitting her!
You can't see the several dozen pics I deleted. *g* Thank you for the vote of confidence!
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