What's Up Wednesday

It was a bit of a quieter week for the horses this past week, but just due to being busy in other parts of life. You all know how that goes! I got to see friends and family so many times though! Or at least, so many times for me who rarely leaves the property. Haha! 

Dinner in my friend's rose garden Friday night!

Last week we didn't get much jumping done at all. You may recall, I had to abort mission last Wednesday when Shiny wouldn't come forward and then Al was pretty spooky. The way things worked out, I just didn't find a good day for jumpies again after that last week. It happens. I don't think any of them are any worse for the wear having a mostly just flatting week though. Some weeks are just like that. 

Eros having a good map while Doc works his magic.

Doc had a cancellation and was able to come out to finish up Eros' maintenance on Friday, and then I had dinner plans, so I was mad rushing to get them finished that day. And then they ended up having Sunday off because it was Father's Day and by the time I finished chores, I had just enough time to shower and head off to the boat for lunch and a tender ride. Twas a lovely day! But ran out of daylight for horsing. I went back and forth on whether to ride Monday which is usually their day off, but had a few appointments scheduled so finally just gave them that day off too. The farrier came, so it was a good day for an extra vacation day at least. 

I was going to use a cute photo of Al napping 
in front of the fan, but let's be real. Most of
the time he's pawing.

While doc was out for Eros, I talked to him about Al again, because that's a forever ongoing conversation... Ha. We revisited a couple of treatments we'd talked about, namely getting him on something for hind gut ulcers and also restarting some EPM meds for him. We did both of those things, and I'm not sure if it's the fact that it is now pretty hot and humid, or the meds, but I seem to have a significantly more willing horse on my hands this week. I wasn't sure what I would have Tuesday after he had a couple days off, but I was able to hop on without a lunge, and while he did produce some dragon breaths, he didn't once spook. We're working a little easy this week since our first dose of heat and humidity this summer, and he was still pretty behind my leg, but I'll take that for the moment. 

I think we're almost ready to start jumping a lil bigger!

Today was more of the same. Hopped right on, did a very short warm up, had a little walk break, and then we popped over the little jumps in the ring. It was a huge non event. Was he too slow and behind my leg? Yes. Yes he was. But he didn't try to break like he had been. And he didn't spook! Not once the entire ride. That's two days in a row if anyone is keeping track. I like to be a little extra careful with him in the heat as he's not the greatest sweater and he's a dark horse. So we did very little. But he was getting better and better as we went along, starting to come more forward. What I liked most is that I finished up wanting to do more. It's been a long while since I've had that feeling. Normally I'm pretty relieved when our ride is over. Which I realize is not what you want for a horse you own... But I still think it's worth working through. And hopefully we're on the right path these days. Boy am I grateful for modern medicine and a vet that listens to me. I'm not sure if we've found the magic answer, and likely we'll still have good and bad days. But I'm starting to see more good ones than bad ones. And the bad ones are significantly less bad than they used to be. 

Look at him! All round and stepping up under himself.

Things are going pretty great with Eros. I've been trying to time his rides so they happen while the heat index not orange so he can get his full rehab rides in. I just want to keep progressing with that! So Friday he had the rest of his maintenance addressed which meant that he had several days off. (Friday through Monday which was an extra day more than is called for, but no harm done.) I was both excited and mildly nervous about getting on him Tuesday. Excited to hopefully feel lots of improvements after his maintenance and nervous that he might be a lil wild after four days off. Which was silly. He was not wild. He feels great though! More willing to come forward, though I'm not letting him do any extension work yet. I feel like the canter needs some work still, but I think that will come as we get to doing more of it. We're up to about 7 minutes total of canter, but I have it split it up right now, so it's not really enough minutes to really influence it yet. We do three laps each way right when we start and that's just a loose canter to let him stretch and get warmed up. Then we do three laps each way later in the ride. I'm starting to use those laps to ask him to come together and use his body better, but it's a work in progress. He just doesn't have the strength yet. All in good time though! Once we get to ten minutes of canter, that's normally when we can start introducing some raised cavalletti and little bitty jumps so I'm hopeful that will be the case this time around too. I'll check in with Doc when I get to that point. Anyway, I'm really pleased with him these days! 

Shiny is doing pretty well too. I think last week she was feeling that EPM med she's on and also was feeling a certain sort of way about her new diet. But this week she's coming around. Getting her feet trimmed has also helped immensely. They all grew a TON of foot this cycle and could have been trimmed after four weeks but my farrier was at Spruce Meadows so we had to wait. She's much less trippy this week mostly due to the feet, and maybe partially the EPM meds. We hopped over a few jumps today and once I convinced her to carry her own body, she was fantastic. As with Al, we kept it very short due to weather. I was wanting to keep going, I was having so much fun with her! But I didn't because she's fat, and fat horses need to be careful in hot weather when they aren't used to it. I do think she's dropped a few pounds finally though! Looking forward very much to the day when she's a healthy weight and we can stop soaking hay... It's not a hard thing to do, but it's definitely a pain in the bum. 

I suppose I should discourage this behavior. 
But it really makes me giggle every time.
Also, it's functional. Once she does this
she's like a whole new willing pony.

I have to say, her buck of annoyance when I insist on more forward when she doesn't want to has gotten a lot more power behind it. I still don't feel like I'd come off or anything, but she is getting me to come forward a bit when she does it now. Guess I gotta work on my core now that her hind end is working better... haha. I love this pony so much!

That's about it from here this week. Hope you all are staying cool and enjoying the summer with your horses!