What's Up Wednesday

 

We're going to start with Al this week because he has many storylines. So many stories, especially for a short amount of time... Oh Al.... 

Who me? -Al (Probably)

My farrier and vet finally had a chat about what to do with Al. Though neither convinced the other of anything in particular. So basically my vet told my farrier, "this is the issue, I'll let you choose how to proceed." Which is nice because my vet obviously trusts my farrier to make good choices. Obviously I do too, or he wouldn't be my farrier. But still. It's nice when everyone believes in each other. The final decision was to put shoes on behind, keeping in mind that heel needs to stay open and not creep upwards again. I liked this decision because I don't mind having shoes on him, but I was really anxious about shoeing the fronts now that the quarter crack has finally grown completely out. So Saturday he got a trim up front and shoes on behind. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Doc was at the boarding barn Friday when I was there riding in the morning, and I popped on down the aisle he was working in to grab some med refills. He asked how Al was doing and said if he's feeling good we can pop some small jumps and see how he does. So obviously I did that immediately when I got home. He was so happy to jump again! We went over maybe five jumps total, mostly 2' and one 2'6". 

He felt just fine when we back to the trot afterwards, so I felt good about our session. Saturday, as mentioned, he got his new shoes put on. We just did a light flat so he could get used to his new feet, but all felt just fine! We did the same on Sunday. Monday he had off, and Tuesday he had a very short ride since we were busy being models. (More on that later.) So today was the first ride I really got to feel how he was doing with the shoes on. And he felt great. I'm feeling optimistic we're on the right path. Hopefully we'll get to jump around a little tomorrow. 

But none of that is the most exciting Al story of the week... (Those were the highlights. The most exciting story is more of a lowlight.) Monday morning, I get a text from my helper while I was being lazy and catching up on some lost sleep. Apparently, Al had gotten loose and was running up and down the street. THE STREET. Effing horses. So I threw on some jeans and ran out there, but apparently my helper didn't text me until after he had caught Al and had him safely back in his stall. Hopefully if that ever happens again, he either lets me know asap so I can help OR tells me in the text that the horse is caught. Would save me some panic. Anyway, I was about to lecture my helper (again) about why it's so important to keep the gate closed... when he showed me that Al had somehow knocked all the boards off the fence in one section of his walkout. So 100% Al's fault and zero percent helper's. But he does now understand why I'm such a psycho about the gate at least. Anyway, alls well that ends well as no one got hurt, and by some grace of divine power or whatever Al didn't run into any cars. 

Eros is doing just fine this week. He got to jump around on Thursday and was great. I was hoping to jump again over the weekend, but since they got shod Saturday, I wound up not doing that. His white line is doing better, but isn't completely gone just yet. 

I've been trying really hard to get him working more on the flat. We've slacked off a little this summer, and I can feel where it's time he gets a stronger again. Not just stronger, but also paying attention to me and not just to the monsters in the woods. I can already see a difference so I think we're back on track. 

Not too much is happening with Shiny. She's going well, today especially. She had both Sunday and Monday off because on Sunday it started pouring buckets after I finished with Al and it never stopped. Monday is her usual day off. Then Tuesday her ride was insanely quick (again, the modeling thing, I promise more on that shortly). So today, I was determined to get her back to working properly. Of course, that stuff is never entirely up to me when it comes to Shiny... So I had to wait for her to warm up before actually accomplishing things. But once we got there, she was actually amazing today. She did shoulder in, haunches in, EXTENDED TROT! I was very proud of her. 

Oh and she did get to jump around on Thursday too. We haven't jumped together much this summer, so I'm excited to get back to it with her. 

Okay, so that's happening with the horses. As for me, I've been keeping busy this week!  I had a horse to braid on Saturday night.

Then on Sunday I set a new course, and got some new fill organized to put out after the rain.  Which I did on Monday. 

New Course

Some new fill, courtesy of the dollar store mostly. 
I need to get more pumpkins and I also need to attach 
them to something as they keep falling over. I think I have 
broken fence board that will work.

And my favorite new fill! I need to get a few more of
these too, but my local dollar store only had these.

They're pretty amazing though, aren't they??

I'm very excited to jump around the new course! I just need to get the fill to stay standing up... Especially the trees. They keep blowing over when I'm on Al and you can imagine how he feels about that!

Oh, also on Saturday my fridge that I just spent a FORTUNE having repaired broke again and I had to throw out all the new food I just bought on Thursday. So that didn't make me happy. Like it's frustrating enough to have to fix everything I own this summer, but now I've fixed most of it twice... It could all stop breaking any time now...

Anyway, I spent literally the entire day on Monday crafting some fun things for Tuesday. Because on Tuesday, all of my horses (and I!) got to be models again for Pinsnickety! I rode in the morning at the other barn, and then got home and organized all of our outfits. Then I braided all three horses. Al dressed up like a hunter while Eros and Shiny dressed up as jumpers. Which is a little backwards, but Al has the most braidable mane so I picked him for hunter braids. Plus I do hope to eventually do some of the adult equitation and medals with him someday so it was good practice for him. Plus he got to wear my fake tail which was a first for him. 

LOOK AT THEM!!!  I cannot wait to get the sneak peak photos. We dressed up like we were at a horse show and it was super fun. Unfortunately, we lost daylight fast and didn't get everything done that we had hoped. So we're going to do another session next month to finish up. I won't be braiding all of them all over again, but it will still be fun. 

So yeah. This past week has been kind of a lot, but mostly it was good stuff. How was your week? Did you all get to do anything fun?