He was so calm I even went for a quick ride the same day! Before the end of the week I also had him looked over by the vet: she absolutely loved Kai's personality. She was very impressed with his teeth for his age, although less than impressed with his body condition. She took a stool sample to check for worms, and said we'll just have to go from there, but she really didn't like how thin he was. Otherwise, signs of arthritis are minimal and he seems great for his age!! Then come the goopy eyes! A dye test showed a complete blockage of his tear ducts, so the vet and I decided to flush his tear ducts out. 
The vet said she usually sedates for this, but that since Kai was so calm we could try without. Ten minutes later came sedation, as Kai was having NONE of the syringe up his nose. Ten more minutes later we sedated him for a second time. He's a tough ol' man!! As it turned out, even after a full syringe of saline solution being injected, the "clog" never moved. The vet doesn't believe his eyes are bad enough to think Kai has incomplete tear ducts, but for now the solution is just to make sure his eyes get wiped out twice a day. He's a mystery!! 
And with that we pushed "Dopey" into the nearest stall to wake up :)
After one week and a negative worm count, I left work early to leave for my IHSA show in Ohio. I ended up putting off my road trip and went out to ride Kai!! On such a gorgeous day, I wasn't the only one leaving work to ride, and this was our first encounter with traffic. Kai was fantastic! People passing us, us passing people (even head on!) and he was perfect! It was very strange for me to be on the best behaved horse in the arena!!
One week in and I couldn't be happier with my decision. 
Week two came and I rode almost every day! It was good for both of us! I'm FINALLY starting to get used to his big gaits and long stride, and I'm not holding him back quite so much (and my equitation isn't falling apart quite so much either, as I become less and less nervous). He's so much fun to ride, and I have to keep both of us thinking otherwise he gets bored. Although he's pretty funny when he gets bored-he does his own thing to entertain himself, all the while NOT misbehaving. 
If we're trotting around the arena, and we've been staying on the rail too long for his liking, he'll start collecting and lengthening all on his own. It's cute, and reminds me to mix things up, but we will have to fix this if I do any rail classes!! Hopefully once the weather is better and I can mix things up with trail rides, he'll be more stimulated overall and won't mind the arena work so much! 
The best part is that he really loves to work and just wants to keep giving me more!!
That Thursday was the hardest he's been worked since I've had him, and probably the hardest he's been worked in a very long time. In a random decision after an equestrian team officer's meeting, the other two officers decided to come down from Mount Pleasant and see him. So I ended up having a bit of a lesson late Thursday night, and of course it was the hardest either of us had worked at all(because who really works as hard as they can when riding around by themselves?). 
My equitation improved a lot, and he was fantastic and put up with all the circles while I figured out what the heck I was supposed to be doing!! And after all that hard work we couldn't let the officers leave without going for a quick ride (they did drive an hour to see him!). He held up surprisingly well, and wasn't even too warm after we were done! Good boy!
And finally, Kai's two weeks of quarantine are up!! After staring at all the other geldings having fun out in the pasture, he is beginning his introductions to the herd! It will still be another week or so before he is turned out with them - nobody wants any fireworks! 
But he now gets to share a fenceline with some buddies, and is in the main barn between all the other horses (and a mini donkey that he's very curious about!!). The whole thing seemed to shake him up quite a bit, and after his first day and evening with the new situation he was very edgy when I went to go see him. All it took was a few carrots, a quick grooming with his favorite soft brush, and some run around time in the arena, and he had calmed down quite a bit. I think he realized that some things (like ME) hadn't changed--his world wasn't turned upside down AGAIN.
January 21, 2006 - Kai comes home! He was so calm I even went for a quick ride the same day! Before the end of the week I also had him looked over by the vet: she absolutely loved Kai's personality. She was very impressed with his teeth for his age, although less than impressed with his body condition. She took a stool sample to check for worms, and said we'll just have to go from there, but she really didn't like how thin he was. Otherwise, signs of arthritis are minimal and he seems great for his age!! Then come the goopy eyes! A dye test showed a complete blockage of his tear ducts, so the vet and I decided to flush his tear ducts out. 
The vet said she usually sedates for this, but that since Kai was so calm we could try without. Ten minutes later came sedation, as Kai was having NONE of the syringe up his nose. Ten more minutes later we sedated him for a second time. He's a tough ol' man!! As it turned out, even after a full syringe of saline solution being injected, the "clog" never moved. The vet doesn't believe his eyes are bad enough to think Kai has incomplete tear ducts, but for now the solution is just to make sure his eyes get wiped out twice a day. He's a mystery!! 
And with that we pushed "Dopey" into the nearest stall to wake up :)
If we're trotting around the arena, and we've been staying on the rail too long for his liking, he'll start collecting and lengthening all on his own. It's cute, and reminds me to mix things up, but we will have to fix this if I do any rail classes!! Hopefully once the weather is better and I can mix things up with trail rides, he'll be more stimulated overall and won't mind the arena work so much! 
The best part is that he really loves to work and just wants to keep giving me more!!
My equitation improved a lot, and he was fantastic and put up with all the circles while I figured out what the heck I was supposed to be doing!! And after all that hard work we couldn't let the officers leave without going for a quick ride (they did drive an hour to see him!). He held up surprisingly well, and wasn't even too warm after we were done! Good boy!
But he now gets to share a fenceline with some buddies, and is in the main barn between all the other horses (and a mini donkey that he's very curious about!!). The whole thing seemed to shake him up quite a bit, and after his first day and evening with the new situation he was very edgy when I went to go see him. All it took was a few carrots, a quick grooming with his favorite soft brush, and some run around time in the arena, and he had calmed down quite a bit. I think he realized that some things (like ME) hadn't changed--his world wasn't turned upside down AGAIN.