Argo has officially been here a week, and we’ve already ticked a few boxes. First and foremost, he got scoped for ulcers.

IMO ulcer treatment is one of those “to be expected” things when getting a horse off the track, and in the old days I probably would have just thrown some Ulcergard at it and not bothered with a scope. However, over the years I’ve learned that not all ulcers are created equal. The size, location, and severity all matter, and all of those factors can change the treatment, the duration, and the required medications. It’s worth taking a look to see what you’re actually dealing with rather than just guessing, throwing money at something, and not having it work.

So, after fasting overnight (I felt so bad, poor guy thought he was starving to death) we went spelunking. And really, we found very little of note. For a horse fresh off the track, his stomach looks quite good actually. A few small grade ones, but nothing glandular, his pylorus looked lovely, and his gastric emptying was good. The vet recommended half a tube of Ulcergard for a couple weeks, which was convenient because I happen to have recently re-upped my Ulcergard supply so I didn’t have to buy any other meds. I just knew that since I had Ulcergard already he’d have something pyloric and require Sucralfate/Miso that would cost me $$$ but thank goodness he didn’t. Way to cooperate, Argo! Just a few little grade one’s definitely feels like a win.

Presto has continued to look sound in his boot, no sign of abscess brewing. I’ve hacked him a few times because he’s getting hella bored (which is real bad for his general aura) and he’s graduated to paddock turnout. We’re gonna see today if he hoof-tests good enough to put a shoe back on that foot and start resuming more normal activities. I hope so, he’s becoming a major pest. Ok, even more of a major pest than normal. He’s also gained an absurd amount of weight in the past couple weeks. Like… he blew up. There are fat pads above his tail and very little definition in his flanks. I even cut his food in half! Gonna be super getting him back into shape (to be specific, a shape that is not a sphere).

It seems very on-brand for him if he managed to time this lameness juuuuuust perfectly to miss precisely all of the fall recognized shows, the last two of which are the next two weekends. Like, honestly, well done Presto. It’s like he has a calendar.

Argo also did a little ground work last week, moving his feet and working on voice commands, respecting my space, lunging both directions, etc. He says going to the right is confusing AF. He’s exceptional at standing still though. 10/10.

After a couple days of groundwork I decided it was time to get on. He’s a quick study and I didn’t want him getting bored, and he seemed like he wanted something to do. I don’t think he’s done much since his last official work on 10/9.

Bless him though, I just climbed aboard and went out to the field. He’s not the type that needs to move his feet first or wind down or take much time to settle in, so… why not. I tacked him up, went to the mounting block, swung aboard, and away we went.

He was a little confused at first about this weirdest AF track he’s ever seen “like… where do we run tho?” but he was really really super for his first ride. His head was on a swivel, looking around at everything, but not in a spooky way. He’s just curious and taking it in. I had to kick him a bit to get him going, and it became apparent pretty quickly that one of our first tasks would be working on steering from the seat and leg. Which… in true Argo form, he started to get it pretty quickly.

We trotted both ways for a while, made lots of circles, stopped and stood and watched his friends, and that was it. First ride in the books! He is a more whoa than go kind of guy, so we’re gonna work on the go button a little bit, but I was quite happy with how smart he is and how quickly he understood things. I think he’s gonna be a good one!

Right now he’s wearing one of Presto’s old Halter Ego bridles – that fits him great – and Henry’s old dressage bit. He’s sort of in between the fits of Henry and Presto’s saddles… the Arion fits him great in the shoulder and width but bridges slightly. The Devoucoux panel shape is better but it’s too tight in the tree. Luckily between Hillary and I we have about 900 million pad options, and her Winderen half pad with middle shims to fill in the bridging area seems to be the key to making the Arion work. He fits in the same girth as Henry and Presto and is wearing my Lady Godiva breastplate, so… right now, no new tack required.

However, I did acquire some new tack. To be fair, it was so cheap it was like theft.

One of the local non-profits was having a big fundraising sale at a feed store down the road on Saturday. From the pics it didn’t look like there was anything promising, but… ya know… worth the 10 minute drive to check it out. And man, after some digging it felt like winning the lottery! For a grand total of $18 I got:

• a brand new Adidas lightweight jacket
• A Success Equestrian jump pad which looks like it’s been used maybe a few times MAX (those things are $140 alone)
• a Nunn Finer bridge breastplate
• two pairs of the nice gummy pull-on bell boots
• two books
• a cool mane comb/clip combo
• a mane razor
• a Christmas bonnet for Henry to wear at the POP show next month

I have never been so psyched about deals. Mega-score!

Today we’ve got our farrier appointment to get Argo some new Nike’s (no more racing plates) and fingers crossed Presto’s foot is healed enough to put a shoe back on so he doesn’t tear this farm apart from rage-boredom. Then Argo will get some bodywork as we work our way down the list of aftercare stuff to get him settled into his new sporthorse life!