Update on the Cocoa Fox

He's much gentler now. It's hard to imagine him screaming the way he used to. He still loves to trot around and never stops moving--how he was ever confined to a stall I will never understand. Yet he is getting over it--he's not insane: a miracle granted only to those who live absolutely in the present.

But his feet have been torqued in a spiral (from his hooves on up to the bones in his legs) from pacing in circles for 11 years. His body is not accustomed to being propelled forward in a straight line because in the past when he went forward it was always in a tight circle. This has had some pretty sad effects now that he has freedom of movement. For one thing, his back hurts. He has a chance to straighten out now and his muscles and nerves and bones must basically redeploy in a different way--and the old way was something he grew from a colt into. When he trots he holds his head cocked kind of skewed like he has a crick in his neck. I'm putting him on a very low dose of pain meds to help and just hoping that he will sort himself out. He needs to get past this so he can be ridden. Upon that hinges his survival--nobody wants a horse who can't be ridden.

Nevertheless he makes giant improvements in lots of other ways. He now accepts small losses of freedom. He lets me put his halter on with no objection. He will drowse while I scratch his forehead--and like his father he likes to rest his head against me. He closes his eyes and pushes ever so slightly. I think this may be a kind of "It hurts" thing. Like, "Please can you make me feel better?" He now gets that when I lead him he must not lean against me. He allows me to saddle him and get him all tacked up--but he cannot bear to have any weight on his back at all. He hardly even lets me scratch him on his back.

He has so much going for him--he is sooo beautiful! and sweet natured with lots of "try," as they say. He is extremely well balanced and gets good power from his rear end. He loves to place his feet carefully. I swear he can pull a cart like nobody's business and maybe even go far in dressage. Now he loves to work because it means that he's being fussed over.

So we'll get there.