Richard Boatwright    Good checkup with the vet. Was due for dental but that wasn’t the issue. Looks like strained right (primarily) hip, left is a little tight but more pronounced on the right. Good news is he is recovering well, relatively quickly, and getting behaviorally back to normal; though I am not riding him yet. I think the injury may be from working in an area with very soft and relatively deep sand which affected his footing.

Richard Boatwright I do take him out on trails and am getting him introduced to cattle slowly. Based on yesterday I made an appointment for a vet check.  He's dragging that foot a bit more and has a pretty good chip in his hoof from doing that.  Think there's something going on with right rear leg. The bit chewing/ constant mouth action is back without me even touching the reins. 

I’ve been working with him for over six months. I essentially restarted him because he had so many holes in his training. I used the snaffle bit basics series to help with this. Lately, we’ve been working on roll-backs and smoothing out setting up the lope and transitions. I don’t see any changes in his demeanor until I am mounted. I did notice lunging yesterday that for the first time he was dragging his right rear toe a little at a trot to the left. No resistance to trotting, but a slight drag. He did have a little protest when trotting right but got over that quickly and no toe dragging. Thanks much.

Didn’t video it yet…need to charge the Pivo. I did try a basal yesterday. No more constant mouth action (not really a surprise), no resistance to moving in a particular direction but still heavy resistance to trotting. 

Richard Boatwright Thanks for the advice.  Quick turnaround with no drama.  

Richard Boatwright Thank you very much.  Will follow up on how it goes.  

Thanks for the quick reply, sir. I think I have a drape in the reins and am using less hands and more legs and seat but maybe I need to record myself and see what leads up to the protest. The only time I’m consciously pulling on the reins is when he goes for a snack (there’s grass in the small arena where we work).