Yeaaaaaa!!!

Well, as Anna (our vet) said:  "No horse (or mule) is perfect."  But Arthuray (soon to be "Sweet Boy," I think . . . since that's what I keep calling him anyway!) -- Arthuray is by golly darned close to perfect!  

She went over every inch of him and he had NO sore spots anywhere on his body, no breathing issues, no ear problems, no temperature, no heart problems.  He entire self was in perfect condition -- except his feet.  He has very bad feet.  His owners don't believe it's necessary to trim mule feet so his haven't been trimmed for more than a year and they are long and cracked and chipped and he has serious white line disease from all the mud over the winter.  And the vet thinks he may have a not-yet-surfaced abscess.  Sigh. 

She noticed that his trot was just a little off (I couldn't see it, but she could) so she did those tests where she bends a leg up for a certain length of time, then has someone trot him off in a straight line away from her so she can see if that makes him limp -- an indication of joint or muscle problems.  His back legs were fine, but she said the front ones gave an indication of some sort of problem.  (I couldn't tell that either.  When Lizzie had those tests, she did some serious limping when she trotted out but in his case it wasn't all that obvious.)  Anyway, after doing those tests and trotting him up and down the drive  SEVERAL times, she took him over into the round pen and checked him out in there on soft ground and she said he was much better there.  And that's why she said those symptoms might well just be an indication that that his problem is not his muscles or joints, but his hooves. 

So . . . we will be getting Zoilo out here to work on his feet as soon as possible - and probably every couple weeks for a while.  And we'll be soaking his feet daily to deal with the whiteline disease.  (I hope the soaking boots I have will stay on such tiny little feet!)

Because the vet changed the time of his exam from evening to 4 PM yesterday, I had to go out directly from work so I wasn't able to take the horse trailer with me.  So we won't be picking him up until Saturday morning.  Probably better anyway.  Saturday will be a nice sunny day (it's been pouring down rain until today) -- and it'll be daylight -- and Buddy and Lisa will be there Saturday to help in case Duke throws a fit.  And that'll also give us have plenty of time to get Bug's old stall and paddock ready for him.

I had almost forgotten, but I bought an Abetta endurance saddle a while back that ended up not working for Lizzie or Bug so I had loaned it  Buddy and Lisa to try out on their mare.

They haven't been riding her, though, so I'm going to try it out on Sweet Boy.  I'm HOPING it will work on a mule better than it did on the horses!  I think it very well might.  For one thing, it does have the dual fasteners on each side for one of those "Y cinches" that I hope will keep the saddle from moving forward without having to use a crupper or a britchen.  And it's much flatter that it needed to be for the horses,  and that's what you need for a mule, so . . . I hope.  We'll see!