What's Up Wednesday

 

We had a nice quiet week at the farm so this will be a short post today. But all good! The calendar has been relatively empty which is nice, but I have had a couple of braiding jobs in the last couple of weeks. 

It's nice to have a little bit of money coming in to help balance all the money that keeps going out! Speaking of money going out... I bought the horses the Helix slow feeder for turnout, but they're kind of making a mess with them. I had the feeders loose, but I think I'm going to attach them to the fence. I don't care so much if the med size paddock gets hay mixed in the footing some, but I really don't want hay mixed into my ring footing. No good comes from that. I do like the feeders though. If you're looking for something like that. Anyway, let's talk horses!

I haven't really jumped much with Al since the abscess episode. It's interesting with him. I think when we have too much time off his angst meter resets and we have to do some work to get him back to comfort level. It might be too soon to tell... but I think we're starting to get that figured out. On days he seems especially high angst, I warm him up on the lunge line instead of under saddle. He can get his spooks out if he needs to, and work off a little nervous energy, and then once I get on, he's a little less on high alert. Will this work forever? Probably not. But for now, it seems to be. He doesn't do anything wild or crazy on the lunge (usually). Just a few rotations at trot, then canter, each way. Obviously, he still spooks sometimes while we ride. But it hasn't been too bad (someone knock on wood!). And the last two days, we've gotten on with no lunge and had really lovely rides. He went forward when asked, did some actual work on the flat. Today he even rode around the full ring while the neighbor was sawing and hammering away. The only thing he spooked at was... honestly, I'm not sure. But it wasn't anywhere near the regular spooky places so I think something genuinely startled him. It wasn't a big deal anyway. 

I reached out recently to a friend of mine from college who I think would be a great help with Al, but unfortunately, her schedule is pretty full at the moment. She doesn't live close by, so it would be a large chunk of her day to come out. She's a mom and horse trainer so yeah. But, all was not lost because she gave me a great suggestion of someone close by that I hadn't even thought of asking for help. It's someone I've known a long time, and would also be a nice fit. I haven't had a chance yet to reach out, but I'm feeling good about having a potential plan in place to get back on track with my boy. 

Eros is feeling pretty good these days! He jumped his first 2' jumps on Friday and was the same level of sound afterwards as when he started, so that's a positive. AND he didn't torpedo at all. Even when I missed epically to one and he would have had every right. I let Shiny's kid sit on him today and it was so adorable. She thought his canter was hard to sit and she is not wrong. Lol. She's started horse shopping so it's not a bad idea for her to get some saddle time on something bigger. She didn't jump him today, but next time we swap she can. 

She happened to be videoing for me when E jumped the fence above, and she was holding Shiny. Mind you, Shiny wasn't especially close to that fence we're jumping, but she must have thought she was, because she tried to kick us as we went by:

Naughty! I was pretty excited our favorite kiddo caught this on camera. If you want to see it in motion visit my ticktock. 

I haven't loved how Shiny's left lead canter is feeling, so she's getting a light week this week. We're still riding, but no jumping. I called our vet's office this morning and she's actually gone longer than a year since her last hock injections, so I feel very confident that's the culprit. Doc will be out Friday to get that addressed. And she'll probably get a shockwave on her neck since she loves that so much. I was shocked when I called today and they said doc had time for us this same week. What luck! Usually we have to wait a bit for non emergent visits. Anyway, Shiny is enjoying the easier week. Also, she's already growing a pretty legit winter coat which is giving me angst that it will be a bad winter. I hope not! I often have to clip her mid October though, so hopefully this is just the usual for her. 

That's really it from here. Nothing too crazy happening. Except for this:

 I was hunting online for something the other day... and wound up discovering that this exists:

It's a director's chair for a dog. Full customizable. Rita said she wants one, so maybe for Chanukah. They're uh... not cheap though. I'll need to braid another horse and a half for it. Worth it though I think. I mean look how cute it is!