The Grave Realization... PART 1

This is a very serious post, and if you know me personally then you know I don't do that often. Rarely as a matter of fact. My point of this post is grave. It starts out with the problems my horses have been developing over the last few weeks. Sharlie had her explosive energy and Casper had his distance. I thought Sharlie got better the day before I went to Kara's. Then today I went down and Sharlie was worse than before. Some examples are
- I have never seen Sharlie buck more than 3 times in a row and she is always moving. Today she bucked 6 times in a row at a stand still. And she bucked higher than any horse I have seen buck before. Including most bronco horses. Most.
- I could not ask for more than a walk without her exploding and shooting forward. The difference is that I could NOT get her to stop. This became especially dangerous when we were playing in the arena. Or trying to anyways.
-We were working in the figure 8 pattern. It actually was going well at the walk. I was using phase one to drive her and she knew it well. Then I asked her to trot and it seemed to fall apart from there. She pulled and pulled against the rope. I tried to get her to slow down but she only sped up. I couldn't even bring her down to the walk again. 80% of the time she didn't even change direction, she just kept bolting on the circle. She almost broke her leg when she got a pole stuck between her legs. She didn't even seem to notice. I stopped when she managed to do a complete figure 8 at a trot. I was lucky she didn't bolt again.
- Physically both Sharlie and Casper have gained an awkward element to their composure.
-Sharlie is not exactly fat. I was examining her stomach. It seems perhaps her ribs have expanded or she is pushing them outward. Oddly, she is pushing them out to whichever side I am standing on. When Mom walks up to her and I stand in front of Sharlie, she doesn't stick her ribs out very far (she is rather unbalanced in account of her ribcage anyway) It seems almost like a defensive thing...
- Casper has lost weight in the last two weeks, gaining almost a hollow look. There is no reason for him to change so dramatically. Its almost like he is unhealthy but he is. I checked. Eyes are bright, no discharge, the gums are pink and pliable skin all indicates good health.
- Hill therapy for both horses has no effect, perhaps even causing their backs to decline even more. This is the 3rd week for both Sharlie and Casper. Casper we have simply been walking up and down different hills while with Sharlie we are doing the more traditional approach. But Sharlie's back gets into worse and worse shape after every session. Casper's hasn't exactly gotten worse...but isn't getting any better.
We are half way through the Hill Therapy (even though I will still continue it past the 6 weeks) and there has been NO improvement.
- Casper has become increasingly distant and hard to catch over the last few weeks for no apparent reason.


This is a list of problems the horses have been having. I too have been having problems which I will explain in the next post. I will write 3 or 4 posts in total on this issue because it is such a serious topic and people are anxious to read what I am trying to say.