Freedom is recovering well from his cribbing collar rubs. He now lets me touch them (yay!) which means it’s easier to apply a salve. A friend loaned me a spray on herbal product that was very helpful at the beginning since there was no way I could actually touch him behind the poll.

I wasn’t able to use a bridle on him until yesterday so I’ve been riding him in a halter with two lead ropes attached. Not very subtle control but sufficient to ride him in the field. His ligament recover is going quite well and I wanted to keep him in work. This week we extended the amount of trotting we do to once around our field — about 50 seconds.

I was worried that he’d be cribbing constantly without the strap but so far that really hasn’t happened. I’ve found him cribbing occasionally on the fence posts but for the most part it hasn’t been an issue. I’m beginning to wonder if I can leave it off altogether. I’ve never been happy with turning him out with a collar; I worry that if he catches it on something he’ll be seriously injured but I also have to keep him from  pulling the posts over. We have electric on the rails but he’s too smart to get shocked and goes right for the posts.

There has to be a better way to design a cribbing collar — one that doesn’t rub and one that has a quick release like a breakaway halter. None of the designs out there are great, especially for a horse like Freedom who lives out.