Orion - Writing Challenge, Day 14

Yesterday morning I put my foot down.  I've had plenty of plans to go out where I board Orion in past couple weeks, and none of them have panned out for one reason or another.  So, Saturday morning, I woke up and decided that since there were potential plans for the day that were undecided and wouldn't happen for a bit if they did indeed happen, I jumped up, took care of the furballs, and headed out for a visit.

I didn't have any plans of doing any real work.  It's been a while since I've really spent any substantial time with Orion, whether for work or play.  I wanted to just hang out with him for a little bit and reconnect.

 It couldn't have gone any better than it did.  We had the barn to ourselves.  He was in the section he likes to go into, and there are places to tie to in there, so I just haltered him and tied him where he was and set to work grooming him and talking to him as I did.  He likes hearing the sound of someone's voice when they're working with him.

His legs were in good shape - no heat or swelling.  There rarely is anymore, but I check every time I'm there just to make sure he doesn't need any bute or poultice/wraps.  He's literally gone over a year in the past without an obvious DSLD flare up, but since it's not something that will ever go away, I usually check just to be safe.  Nothing out of the ordinary yesterday.

Massages are sooo relaxing...even for horses.

I took my time grooming him and did a little massage on his front legs since they're usually his trouble spot.  I figured it couldn't hurt anything and that he'd probably like it....which he did.  I got lots of nuzzles and sniffing while I knelt next to him to do the massage.  He was super sweet and lovey the whole time.  Sometimes he's a stubborn snot, but that wasn't the case yesterday, thank goodness. Haha.

I spent about an hour and a half hanging out with him, and even when I took the halter and rope off, he was content just to hang out with me there in the barn.  He stood at his gate and watched me walk away when I left.  I'm going to have to try to find time to go back out this week and have another visit like that.

Re-establishing that ground relationship will be important once we eventually do start trying to do anything under saddle again.  That's probably still a long, long way off, but I'll update here as things progress!