What's Up Wednesday

 

Happy New Year everyone! I know it's October. It's the Jewish New Year, and I celebrated tonight with a delicious home cooked meal that my mom slaved over. My brother and his family came too. It was lovely!

The horses got their fall shots today, and the boys had their teeth done. Shiny's teeth can wait until spring, but she had some additional bloodwork today. I've been weighing and soaking her hay all summer to get weight off her. But that is a big ask for when we move to the new barn, so we're checking her bloodwork to see if we have any underlying metabolic things going on before we talk about getting her back on dry hay. IF we can. We will know more soon. Fingers crossed because soaking hay once it's below freezing out is pretty challenging. But you know, we'll figure it out either way!

I gave the horses the day off since our appointment was late morning and took some time. We got done around 2ish. I had to be at dinner at six, so I probably would have only had time to ride one anyway if I wanted to look and smell presentable at dinner. I don't think they were sad about the break. I spent my free time going through our boarding barn stuff. I want to sell all the navy stuff and replace it with green stuff. Because that's just who I am as a person. And I know it's ridiculous but all of those things just reminds me of all the stress, and I would like to start fresh. I don't really have the finances to buy new things until I sell the old ones though, so I'm washing stuff up and getting it ready to list. There's a tack sale happening just up the road from me at the end of the month, and I got myself a table. 

All of the blankets are clean, I washed them when we got home and I made sure to thank past me for that. I'm going to keep and use the sheets I got from Greenhawk last spring since we barely had a chance to use them. They look like bakers, so more tan than blue. Eventually I'll get some other green sheets, but for now these are fine. But I want to sell all of the Amigo blankets. I have heavy turnouts with hoods, turnout sheets, stable blankets in 100g, 350g, and 450g (the 450s are Rambos with hoods). All in 81" and 69". So lots to go! I don't need to replace everything, as I do have stable blankets to bring over there already. I'd like to get some new turnouts for there though. I don't have super heavy ones here since we usually aren't home when it's very cold. I also have a bunch of scrims and coolers, and a couple of back on track mesh sheets. I don't need to replace most of those either. So hopefully if I can get most of this stuff sold it will cover the things I'd like to get. Anyway, I'm in the process of washing the scrims and coolers. 

Yesterday I hung these two above to dry before I rode Eros. I was on him a solid 15 minutes before he realized they were there and absolutely panicked. I laughed so hard. He first noticed them the second time we were in canter, tracking right. But he only kind of noticed at first when we came through the corner, and I saw him kind of try to look back. (These are hanging on the walkout, on the side closest to the road, so not particularly close to the ring, but very much in view.) So the next time we came down the long side toward them he slammed on the breaks before the corner, stood like a deer in headlights for a minute, and then just started running backwards. That was the moment I realized that the reason he felt so amazing yesterday was because he was absolutely wild. Wild Eros is my favorite. Most of the time. Anyway, he stopped running backwards and slowly walked himself up to the ring fence to stare for a moment. And then it was over. He's hilarious. 

I was hoping he'd have a good romp in turnout today and get some of this silliness out of his system, and he absolutely did that... Shiny wasn't in her paddock because she had to fast after breakfast this morning before her bloodwork. She got to have a little bit of turnout time, but then had to come in where there weren't any snacks. So the boys didn't have their fearless mother figure at the end of the ring for their turnout. Clearly Eros thought monsters were coming to get him. I heard him carrying on out there and looked out to see him REARING! Like full on high ho silver, rearing. I've never seen him do that I don't think. And the bucks! Very impressive. I was really glad to see though that he wasn't just tearing around because that's how he tends to hurt himself. He'll probably be a bit stiff tomorrow, but I'll blame it on the shots rather than the antics. Because I'll feel better that way. Lol. What's a little white lie to myself, right? 

I didn't really do much jumping last week with any of them. I wanted to have a couple flat days with Shiny and Al after their maintenance and weekend off. Then we got some rain, and the ring was pretty wet so that delayed us a bit more. Eros popped over a couple on Saturday, but he was torpedoing so I cut the session short. I think he'll be better this week now that he's gotten some of his fresh out. I'm hoping to jump him Friday. Next week we should be back to our regular twice a week schedule for jumpies. 

Shiny jumped with her kid on Saturday. I think she's the hardest working equine at the farm this summer. She looked great, but was a little tired... Why you ask? Because after I rode her on Thursday I knew she needed her quarterly free lunge. She was kicking out for every canter depart, and after her vet work I knew she wasn't sore. She was SASSY! I was worried if she hit a rail with her kiddo she'd land bucking so I made sure she had some play time before hand. 

She had a grand time with some controlled galloping (she's smart enough to not overdue it) and some great big bucks. She likes to whinny to the boys while she's playing which is pretty funny. The first time she ever did that I worried that maybe I'd made a bad call and she was panic running. But then I realized she wasn't panicked at all. She was just having the best time ever. I know free lunging can be controversial, but with our limited turnout situation, they don't really get to run around and be horses. I don't ever chase them or anything. I'll give a little cluck to get them moving and then just let them do what they want. If they don't want? That's fine too. They can have a roll and come in. Whatever they need. I think it's better for their legs to have a gallop around the whole ring, then tear around on a small circle on the lunge line. Especially Eros. His legs would fall off. 

And then there's Al. He hasn't jumped at all lately. But hopefully will later this week. It took me a few days after his weekend off to get his focus back to work. Which isn't surprising for him. Now that it's cooler out we also have to deal with the noisy neighbor who spends every single day doing yard work and also building something on his back deck. So there's constant noises through the tree line, whether it's the gas leaf blower, the lawn mower, a power saw, hammering, or drilling. It's constant. And you can't see it, only hear it. So that's hard for Al. But he's really trying his best, and I have to give him credit for the try. Especially after a few days of vacation! I thought I had him back where I needed him by the weekend. But then he got weird Saturday morning in turnout. At first I was very worried that he maybe needed to go back on the misprostol, but my vet talked me off the ledge today. 

Here's what happened, and then I'll share what the vet had to say. So he was out in the larger walkout behind Eros' and Shiny's stalls while Eros was in the ring. (They switch halfway through turnout time so they each have time in the big ring.) Anyway, he'd been out there awhile, it was almost time to swap them, when he started having an absolute fit. He was kicking out (not at himself which is important to note) and then turning and biting at himelf, but like way towards his tail. It really seemed like he'd either been stung by a bee, or there was some kind of bug that had gotten under his fly sheet. I got him calmed down, and put him in stall where I pulled off his sheet and shook it out, but didn't see anything. No obvious stings, and nothing in the sheet itself. He was still kind of worked up, but I didn't think it was a banamine situation, though I was prepared if it turned out to be. First I decided to give him a tube of ulcer guard because that can't hurt anyway. He calmed down, so I brought Eros in and dressed Al back up and walked him out to the ring. But he bolted around me as we were walking out, which he doesn't do. That's not an Al move. I stopped him, and brought him back inside the barn to try that again. This time he walked nicely into the ring, and then kind of did it again. I walked him a bit, he seemed fine, so I let him go, and then the rest of his time outside was perfectly calm. Weird right? He then spent the rest of the day staring wide eyed out his window and just looking generally tense and unsettled. But no colic like symptoms and no more kicking out or biting at himself. Just angst. 

I decided not to ride him that day, because I like living. Instead I put a bridle on him and worked him on the lunge line. He worked fine, wasn't wild, but was TENSE and nervous the whole time. Did what I asked though, and wasn't explosive or anything. He was slightly calmer in his stall after working but was very much still on high alert. So I explained all this to doc and he really thinks it's anxiety and not ulcers. Though anything is possible with horses... So we'll wait and see if we have any more weird episodes before putting him back on meds. He was wonderful to ride yesterday. Relaxed for the most part. He only had one stop and stare, and it was at a squirrel that had actually startled me too. So that's fair. Tomorrow is another flat day, and then maybe Friday we can try some little jumps if he's still feeling relaxed. Fingers crossed. 

I was reading Emma's blog yesterday and she talked about cuing her horse to stretch down because performing that action kind of prevented rushing because it's pretty hard to rush and stretch (unless you're Eros...) and it really clicked with me that this could be useful for Al too. When he's relaxed and wanting to work, he likes to stretch down and open his step up nicely. And when he's in this posture, he's very unlikely to spook because he's just enjoying the moment and he's usually paying attention to me in that moment. So if I can get him more reliable to the aid for this posture, it might help me to keep his attention when he'd like to shift it elsewhere. I'm not positive if it will work, but it's something I'd like to at least try. So that's on the agenda for the next couple of weeks. We'll see how it goes!

And that about catches you guys up on what's happening over here. More of the same really, but I love a routine so that's great with me! I'll leave you with this cute photo of Rita enjoying a walk amongst the fallen leaves.