Monday

Monday evening I enjoyed a nice ride on Milo. I was alarmed at first to hear from one of the weekend feeders, that Sunday night Milo didnt come right in to eat - which is very unlike him. She said she had dumped the grain and hay and even though it was dark, she waited to listen and/or see the horses come in to eat. Apparently, Milo and Jake stood right outside the stalls, but neither made a move to come in. She called to each by name, hoping to coax them inside. Finally, they both sauntered in, and when she heard their munching mouths, she was satisfied she could go home.

Because of this, I didnt want to to work him very hard in case something was up or he was feeling off. I had checked his vitals and everything seemed fine, he was acting like his usual personable self too. Although it was tempting to get a nice workout as I was the only one in the arena. But Milo was a bit distracted anyways - the weather changed again and a lot of the horses were feeling frisky. So it didnt feel like a day to lope for those two reasons. However, we got some nice walk and trot work in, and Milo did a very very good job on lifting and bending at the trot. Good Milo! It seems his muscles are finally figuring out how to be used in this new and difficult way.

We ended on a good note, and I packed him all up to put him back away. It was another beautifully clear night, in fact, the lunar eclipse was said to happen that night - although at 6pm it was still too early to see. I let Milo go in his pasture and he walked right into Jakes stall to lick the last fragments of old-man-grain. I dumped him his grain and he readily ate that along with his hay. So he seemed to be doing fine. However, I do appreciate the heads up from the feeder - Ive noticed that many (especially when feeding the pastured horses) just dump and go. Never taking into account if the horses gladly gobbled their grub or were hesitant.

Thats the biggest downfall to keeping Milo on the pasture. In the main barn, he was smack dab in the center of all the activity and was fed three times a day, along with a daily stall cleaner. So needless to say, if something was up, someone saw it quickly. In fact, when we first moved to the facility, in the first week Milo laid flat out and grunted as he slept. He not only grunts, but takes in an almost ragged sounding breath, holds, than blows it all out, and repeats. An alarmed barn worker told me she was really concerened, but I knew it was just the way he sleeps. Ive also noticed that feeders dont always check the water troughs, so this is something that concerns me especially when Im absent for a while. However, now that Milo is in with Jake, I do know that on the weekends Jake's owner comes out to check on them which is good.