What's Up Wednesday

 

I've been in a fight with Pivo lately, so I don't have great media which is disappointing. But the horses are mostly in great places, so that for sure makes up for the poor media. 

I gave up on Pivo and just used it as a tripod instead.
Stationary video is better than no video at all!

So after my post last week praising the new leaf Al has turned over, we had a bit of setback. It was not his fault though. Have any you ever heard the sound an electric hedge trimmer makes? It's terrifying if you haven't. It kind of clicks loudly while tearing through sticks and leaves... I can imagine you know where this is going. So Friday, we had planned a jump school day. But the neighbor was out there slinking around behind the tree line, and Al was having a little bit of a tough time with it. Not as bad as he could have been, but he wasn't comfortable. We tried very hard to work through it, and started popping over some little jumps. But as we landed off the flamingo jump, the neighbor started hedge trimming in the corner directly where we were headed. I nearly died. So did Al. Thankfully we both survived, but I had to end the ride. The trouble with Al is that he doesn't forget these things. Which is why it is so hard when things scare him. Trying to work him through stuff that he's genuinely scared of tends to escalate things and it takes a lot longer to get him over the fear. So I opted to finish our ride. Here's where it gets... interesting. I have a bit of a mouth on me, but I'm also not a very confrontational person. So I frequently call the guy next door an asshole, and ask rhetorical questions like "are you TRYING to fucking kill me?" Most of the time he's wearing ear muffs (to drown out all the noise he's making of course) so he never hears me. BUT THIS TIME HE DID. I almost died. I was walking away from him when I heard him ask if I was talking to him. So I just kept walking cause you know. He's a scary dude. (Remember the screws in my tenants tires? Or the spray paint on my neighbor's car?) Anyway I continued walking around avoiding that side of the property and got off and went inside. Well. Scary dude WALKS OVER TO MY BARN (effing trespasser) and was all, were you talking to me? And I was like well, I was trying to get you to stop the trimmer for a minute because you nearly got me killed. And he was all, oh I had no idea that would scare the horse. I thought they'd be used to it with all the lawn mowers and everything. I looked him in the eye incredulously and told him, they're not used to any of that. These are prey animals, noises in the woods or that they can't see the source of are TERRIFYING to them. And he was all, oh I didn't know. I wouldn't try to get you hurt. Why would I try to get you hurt? 

Guys. All of that is bullshit. We've had this conversation numerous times. He KNOWS what scares horses (pretty much everything he does.) and honestly, he HAS tried to get me hurt before. So I just looked at him when he asked that and I said, I really wouldn't know. He never said sorry though. Cause he's NOT. So anyway, eventually he went back to his place. And I've been very on edge and on high alert for his retaliation. So far nothing damaged that I can tell. However, when it was time to ride on Saturday he was using a chainsaw next to the ring all day. I was able to ride Eros and Shiny through that drama, but Al had a lunge line day. Fortunately, Sunday was super humid with impending storms on the way, so neighbor stayed inside all day and we were able to work through some stuff. Turns out, now that Al is feeling better, even when he's a little unhinged I can make things better by not playing into it. I just need to pretend like everything is fine and trust him to believe me. It's probably the hardest thing in the world to actually do, but it works. We ended very nicely. Tuesday he came out mostly ready to focus and get some work done. He tested the waters a little in the beginning, but I just did my best to sit chilly and not worry and it worked well. We finished with some lateral work and I was really proud of him. 

Definitely lower quality media, but I'll take it over none!

Yesterday and today I got really lucky in that the neighbor didn't seem to be around and for the first time all summer it wasn't windy! So Al was pretty content. Today he was a little suspicious of the shared tree line, but we worked through that and then started jumping some little jumps. I put a few up to 2'6" before I got on, so we quickly moved on to those little bit bigger fences and he was just so great. We strung a few things together and even did one of the bending lines. I'm trying to keep things easy and positive, so we didn't do a ton and I didn't get off to make anything bigger even though I really wanted to. I think we're ready to get back to 3' and work our way up again now that he's feeling better, but I don't want to rush anything. I know the fence height means nothing to him, but I just want to keep things short and positive right now. Next time we jump I'll probably stick one or two up a little bit, and we'll just keep inching our way up to where we used to be. It doesn't look like our trainer will be back anytime soon, so I need to figure out an alternative. I want to get to some little shows this summer, and it's like half over already. So we need to get moving!

Eros is up to ten minutes of cantering and twenty of trotting this week, so we've started adding in some circles and not quite full lateral work, but starting to exaggerate the bend a little here and there. He's beginning to loosen up and lift his belly and get back to his old self. We did have to have a little discussion yesterday about paying attention and that leg means forward not sideways... But I kind of like when he lets a little naughty slip out once in awhile. He's generally a by the book kind of guy so it's nice to see a little other side of him. As long as he doesn't take it too far. Ha! I'm hoping we can start popping over some little things soon, I'll check in with doc next week and get his thoughts. I think he's pretty bored with all the flatting by now. I know I am! 

Look at that shrinking belly! 

Things are a little weird with Shiny. Nothing is wrong really, but her skin is being very sensitive. It started over the winter when I had to stop wearing spurs. She was getting rubs really easily. Even her saddle pad rubbed her on the edges. I figured it was due to winter since it happens to Eros and Al a little bit too in the winter time. And it seemed to resolve once her summer coat came in. But this past week the little spur rest on my Cavallo boots gave her another rub. And then her D-ring bit rubbed her mouth. So I put her in the side pull and that rubbed her face. That was on Saturday. So Sunday, I snapped some reins on her halter and just rode her in that. I put a full cheek on her this week and so far that seems to be okay. The mouth rubs had healed up by the end of the weekend, and the full cheek sits a little differently than her dee does. So hopefully we'll be okay with that. I lubed her up with some bit butter too. I'm thinking the skin sensitivity might be from the Thyro-L that she's on, but I'm not certain. I had mentioned it to doc at one point and he agreed it could be from that but hard to prove without taking her off, and we can't do that just yet. So I'll just try to be really careful about what I put on her. 

Riding wise she's been good. She's a little unmotivated but once I convince her to actually use herself things go really well. I have absolutely no media of her jumping from either of our last two jump schools because Pivo is on the poop list. But I did get a few trotting screen shots. Better than nothing at all I suppose. 

That's about it from this end. A little excitement, but mostly things are going well. Horses are all finishing up their various meds from our last vet visit (Adequan for Al and Shiny, Relyne for Shiny) so it's nice to be wrapping up the extra stuff. How are you guys doing? Enjoying summer? Doing fun things with your horses??