Sunday Night Ride- Not 100%

I started working my second job on thursday so i have been struggling to get out to  the barn to see and ride my horse. It sucks i have to stay up really late to go out after my son is in bed so i have not been getting much sleep lately. Sundays are nice because i only work one job that day and the evening is mine to spend with my family.

I am very lucky with the guy i am with now, he knows how important riding is to me and encourages me to go to the barn and ride that he will watch my son while im gone. I still usually wait until my little guy is in bed before sneaking off to do some riding, but sundays i have been lucky lately and have been joined at the barn by my son and boyfriend.

G was easy to catch and bring in he even let me clean his feet with no hassell, he still is not picking them up for me and makes me do that but i am assuming that will come with time. After my son and i brushed all the mud off of G we went into the arena to lunge. It took my 5 seconds to notice something was off with G he seemed either stiff or sore it was hard to tell on the lunge but he was definatly favoring his left hind leg. It couldnt be that bad because he was walking fine on it from the paddock to the barn and the barn to the indoor. Currently our paddocks are all mud which is lovely for the horses to try and get through.

I lunged him both ways and it was the same thing he was favoring the left hind, in the trot he would shorten the stride but in a canter he would try to not put the foot down. I spent very little time lunging him then took a look at his legs and feet both looked fine there was no puffyness no scratches and he let me put pressure all over the end without showing any signs of discomfort, i was baffled and hoping it was just stiffness.

I saddled him up with the intentions of seeing how he felt, if he felt off at all we would not ride and he would go in his stall for the night to rest. Under saddle he felt fine we did circles, pushed into the scary corners of the arena and nothing he was perfectly fine. So we picked up a trot which again felt good he didnt seem to be favoring the leg at the trot at this point so we kept going. M came into the arena while i was riding and i told her my concern and she said from the ground he looked fine so we did a bit more trot work.

Our trot is coming along really nicely its getting very even and not as quick now that i am trying to focus on not leaning forward while posting. We are still working on building his mucles and both of our endurance so we did not ride at the trot for long, 3x each direction around the arena was more than enough to make G all sweaty.

I kept him in last night, and this morning when i went out and put him out he was fine so im thinking he was just a little stiff and being a baby about it but im going to keep an eye on it, i will most likely be heading out to the barn tonight and will do a little lunging and see how he is feeling then. Fingers crossed its just stiffness.