Truthful Tuesday

 

I was on my own in the barn Friday through Monday, and I was VERY productive out there. We had two rain days so instead of riding, I did lots and lots of cleaning. I'm trying to get things back to where they should be so it will be easy to keep up with. (Of course today, my worker was back and used his gas powered blower to dirty everything back up... but that's a complaint for another day.) Monday I was able to ride, but I made sure to leave the place looking perfect. It was a long day.

Monday's Stats
Yes, 35,736 steps. 

I was so pooped by the time I got ready for bed I put my jammies on backwards. And THAT my friends is today's confession. I did turn them around before actually going to bed though. Fear not!

Truthful Tuesday

 

Well guys, I messed up on Sunday. I set my usual two alarms. And somehow slept through both of them. I woke up at 8AM! I ran out in my jammies to feed the horses before heading back inside to put on appropriate horse chores clothing. 

Thankfully, my horses aren't too tied to a clock so they didn't seem terribly offended that breakfast was more than 30 minutes late. Thank goodness. But I sure felt terrible about it! It all worked out okay in the long run because it was going to be a rainy afternoon so I figured we wouldn't get to ride anyway. They got to stay out a little longer but were back inside just in time for the rain to start. 

I've since added a third alarm to the mix that's significantly louder. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that I was pretty seriously considering selling the farm along with the horses today. I'm not completely sure how much snow we got on Monday, but it was over my knees. We still had huge piles from all the other snow this year, and thus, all the hard working snow plow people are completely overwhelmed. Understandably. But also completely overwhelmed? Us backyard barn owners. There were many of us commiserating today. I tried very hard yesterday to shovel enough to get the horses out, but I was unsuccessful. My snow plow person said they would be here early today, but early came and went. And the horses were stuck in a second day. Fortunately with this particular herd as long as you keep feeding them, they don't care much where they are. But I care! I felt terrible not getting them out for a second day. To top things off, my thermostat decided to quit its job early this morning too. Thankfully it was the barn one and not one of the house ones. But still not great given all the plumbing in my barn. HVAC couldn't come until I was plowed. Plow was MIA with no eta. Oh and did I mention that I was now out of muck buckets but couldn't get to the poo dumpster until I was plowed? Thankfully I got the stalls done both days with what I have. But I probably should consider getting a few more buckets. Just in case since this seems to be a recurring theme around here lately.  

Fortunately, early afternoon the HVAC company called and said they could climb in from the road and get me taken care of. Which was so kind of them, because I know that was a real PITA. I made sure to tip them generously. (Thank goodness I sold a few things to a neighbor a couple weeks ago so I had some cash!) The snow plow arrived sometime between 3 and 4. They did the best they could and I will be able to get horses out tomorrow, so that's the most important thing. I'm not sure I can get my car out, but they got enough done that I should be able to tackle whatever is blocking it myself. 

There's a driveway under there somewhere.

So anyway. That's today's confession. Winter very nearly broke me entirely today. Well, winter and my thermostat. But the good news is my spiral is back under control for the time being and my helper will hopefully be able to get here to work tomorrow! (I say hopefully because it will be snowing again tomorrow morning. 1-3" predicted. Someone please make it stop.)

What's Up Wednesday

 

I got done early in the barn today because it won't stop raining... And the tropical storm isn't even here yet! Sheesh. 

But this is a nice side effect of the rain

It's been a weird week around here. Monday Al started acting colicky while I was filling Shiny's hay nets. Kept laying down, getting up, laying down. You all know what I mean. I gave him some Banamine paste and took him for a walk and it seemed to resolve in the five minutes I walked him, which is not enough time for the Banamine to even kick in. So that was weird. It was right around noon when this all happened. he seemed fine the rest of the day, though he was napping (quietly and comfortably) when I came out for night check. (And yes, I was in contact with the vet. Even though it seemed under control I always like to touch base, especially when this is NOT normal for this horse.) He got up when I threw hay though and was happy to eat it. Plenty of manure in the stall. All seemed good. Then on Tuesday, same thing! Like same timing even. This time I did not give Banamine and instead just walked him for a few minutes. Again, was fine after the walk. WEIRD. So checked in with vet, and while not terribly concerned they just said to keep an eye on him, but agreed to not give Banamine so we don't cover anything up at this point. So he's been fine since. I hand walked him yesterday for twenty minutes at the end of the day since we didn't ride, but otherwise let him have the extra day off. I was going to tack walk, but it kept raining. Today I decided to tack walk him (despite the stupid rain) and all went fine. So weather permitting and as long as he stays normal we'll do a light flat tomorrow and hopefully be back to normal for the weekend. I'm relieved he's feeling better, but I am still a little concerned as it was so strange. I'm going to schedule a non emergency vet visit just to pull some blood and do an exam. I just don't want to miss something that could be caught early. Ya know? Like with Jamp and his failed kidneys. If we'd caught that sooner I might have been able to help him. Would hate to repeat that mistake. It's entirely possible this was just from gas and/or maybe the weird weather pattern. But I'd rather spend a little money and err on the side of caution. Plus with his weird behaviors in general, there COULD be something brewing inside him. Or not, and I'm just a crazy person. Either way. Haha!

Anyway, prior to all this, the horses all had a nice rest of last week and weekend. We got both or our jump schools in though only used Pivo for one due to inclement weather. 

Al has had better days since I spent an entire blog post whining about him. Maybe that's the key? Out him on the internet and then he gets his poo together? Whatever the reason, I'll take it! We jumped around Friday, but I kept the fences on the smaller side since I wasn't entirely sure how it would go. He was great. Like really great. So that was a relief!

We kept it really basic. I didn't attempt the bending lines, opting instead to just jump a course of singles. I really like to simplify things after a rough patch. Go back to the basics and set us up for success. And that it did! I won't jump him this week but probably will do the same thing next week assuming he stays comfortable. Just keep it simple and positive. 

Shiny has been WORKING lately! We've done a lot of work on the flat and with transitions, and she's starting to move more quickly off my leg (just not in the beginning... haha, she is who she is). She's getting MUCH more supple and starting to get that hind end working better. I think the bodywork session really helped her, but also, I apparently needed to put in a little more effort too. FAIR! You can see the difference in how she's jumping even. She's been kind of just cantering over stuff, not really picking her knees up well. But this last jump school was so much better. Amazing what happens when the power comes from the back end like it's supposed to... Funny how all those things you're taught are actually true. Crazy!
Her kiddo came today to ride her, and kiddo is starting to learn about putting Shiny together. We didn't get there all the way yet, but we did some work on a figure eight, and she's learning about bend, and moving the ponies body left or right. All precursors to getting her packaged up. Kiddo said today Shiny felt much more responsive so that was a pat on the back for me and the work we've been doing. 

I didn't get around to changing the course yet because it started pouring buckets when I was going to do it. But I did find some places to throw rails on the ground so Eros could kind of do a little course. It went... okay. He started out lazy, with his hind end trailing behind him (something we're working on, but I'm STRUGGLING to get it better) and just not really going forward so I couldn't adjust as needed for nice distances. And finished up reminding me about Torpedo Eros which is bad behavior but I couldn't help but laugh at his antics. I reeled him back in and got him to canter one nicely before quitting. Torpedo Eros hurts himself so we have to shut that down asap. 

He's been very spooky at the end of the ring for a the past week, but Tuesday he gave himself a free lunge during turnout (which... is not ideal, but mental health matters too I guess) and was lovely on Friday. I think he was just really wild and needed to get those bucks out. Yesterday, after his frolic, when I was terrified he'd have lamed himself, he actually felt so much better. The hind end was more under him, and he put in some lovely work. Unfortunately, he was the one that got rained out today. It had stopped when it was his turn to ride, but the footing was just too wet at that point. We'll see what happens tomorrow but it's supposed to rain off and on all day again. 

And that's about it from here! We have a quiet weekend coming up and then the next two weekends will be rough. I have a bunch of horses to braid starting Thursday night both weeks. My wallet is very excited though! We'll see how much productive riding gets done those days. I'm assuming very little, but it's okay. They've been working pretty hard this summer. 

Hope you all had a great week! Also, have you had a horse do what Al was doing? What was it??

Truthful Tuesday

 

E: "Hi all, Eros here..."

A: "AND ME AL!!!!"

E: "Yes, and Al too. Mom said we had to come on here and confess our sins. Which frankly is BS. I'm perfect, and Al... well okay, maybe Al has sinned."

S: "Eros... (Stacie here), I caught you in the act! ON CAMERA!"

E: "Mom, no. What you saw was me trying to fix Al's mistake. I was not at all an active participant in any destruction. I would never! I'm perfect. You say so all the time."

A: "GUYS!!!!! I'm not a bad Al! I just like to play with the toys. And mom puts out all these new ones. So I'm just doing what any kid would do."

S: "Boys. Just get to the point here before our friends stop reading."

E: (Sigh) "Okay. What happened was, Mom got all this new stuff to put around the jumps. And it looks really yummy but isn't. I would know. I'm a connoisseur of tasty things. Anyway, Al went out there and just went all eight year old boy and threw everything everywhere."

A: "Haha! I dids that. Yes. SO FUN!!! But the bestest part no one tooks a picture of, was when I gots the big face stuck on my foot. But it was okay. I was brave and just stomped around the ring. SO FUN! I should have puts them on all my feets. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO COOL! Maybe tomorrow."

E: "See? Al did all of it. That ridiculous little brother of mine got the skull planter stuck to his foot and just let it stay there and wandered all around. What a child. Anyway, he didn't break it or anything, so I don't know what mom is all grumpy about."

S: "Kids. I'm grumpy about what you all did to the candy corn jump! I can't repair all those broken cones. That's going to be a one and done for this season. I'm very disappointed."

E: "To be fair mom, you dropped a rail on them and kinda broke them first."

S: "He's not totally wrong there. But I just detached them from the board. The boys here have actually destroyed like half the cones so far. And what Eros isn't mentioning is when I caught him holding an empty planter in his mouth and waving it around."

E: "I swear, I was trying to put it back!" 

A: "Ima do it all again tomorrow! Morning turnout is my FAVORITE!!! I PLAYS WITH ALLS THE TOYS!!!!

S:"This is why we can't have nice things."

Shiny: "Boys are so stupid."

Truthful Tuesday

Eros and Shiny will be coming home the end of this month, and so it's time to start getting the barn organized and ready for them again. I'm likely bringing Al and Pammon home too at the end of May, so I'm trying to get everything organized and arranged for four horses here. I only have 6 blanket racks available for horse clothes (one for each stall) but over the years, the horses' wardrobes have grown quite a bit. When I had two or three horses here that meant I had two per horse, so they could have one rack for indoor clothes and one for outside clothes. That won't work if I have four here though. 

Last year I purchased this portable blanket holder for use in one of the empty stalls when we have wet blankets that need to dry. 

My new plan is to to get one of these per horse and hang their outdoor clothes in the empty stall. It makes sense too since they sometimes come in wet anyway. They each have four blankets for outdoors: fly sheet, sheet, fleece lined sheet, and heavy. So one per horse is perfect. But here's my confession... I already had one, but when I placed the order, I somehow forgot about one of the horses and only ordered two! When did I realize this? At midnight last night when I was in bed trying to fall asleep. So then I was up late placing another order for the third one I needed. Sheesh. 

So that's today's confession. I can't count, and then I stay up super late fixing my mistakes. 

Truthful Tuesday: Trailer Confessions

 

So... I brought my horses home on April 30th. A week ago Friday. But I still haven't parked my trailer back in its spot. What's taking me so long you ask? Well, I was inspired by Jen's post to wash and wax the trailer and I can't really do that when it's tucked away in its spot next to the trees. And it kept raining here! Plus, I was kind of procrastinating because I knew it would be a several hour project.

The Before.

I used the same products as Jen in her post, so click the link above to Jen's post if you're interested. It's basically like Windex for trailers, spray and wipe. But you're probably wondering what my confession is... Um. Well. I didn't do the top. 

I have a big ladder in the barn, but it's heavy and a little broken, and I didn't feel like dealing with it. So I just used my braiding ladder, the wheel wells, and the back of the truck to give me height. I'm 5'2" so that's still not much height. I could reach all of the white parts easily from my ladder, but the silver part at the top and the roof didn't get done. And there were some spots on the weather stripping that I couldn't get fully clean. But at least it's mostly done? 

It took FOREVER, and probably the next time it's due for a wash and wax, I may hire a pro so they can do the roof too. Since the horses have Monday off, I had a day to dedicate, but it took a full four and a half hours and that was without doing the roof! 

I still haven't parked her because I have a little organizing I want to do in there, which is also easier when it's facing this direction (otherwise the tack room door is against the trees). Plus I have to pull into the road and then back it in which is tough to do on a weekday here. I live on the corner of two state roads that get very busy. Sunday mornings are the best time for that.

So that's my confession. I only washed and waxed like 90% of my trailer after leaving it hooked up in the middle of the driveway for a week. Good thing I live alone! 

Anything you need to confess today?

Truthful Tuesday

 

Oh man. Guys. Here I was all proud of myself for being super organized ahead of the horses coming home... But I forgot to check on the Gator! Poor Gus. I went to make sure he had fuel only to discover two flat tires and a dead battery. Oops. 

Now to be honest, I don't take the best care of the Gator. He doesn't have a hard job (mostly just brings poop buckets back and forth to the dumpster, and drags the ring once or twice a week). So I'm not always that good at remembering to get him serviced. He's a good worker, he does is thing. If a light goes on or he stops working I get him tended to. 

Fortunately, I was able to get him picked up yesterday and hopefully he'll be all patched up with new tires, a new battery, and fresh oil by the weekend. And if not? Well, I guess I'll figure that out when the time comes. At least I noticed BEFORE the horses actually got here? Right?

What's Up Wednesday

Work has been mad crazy since Friday, so my apologies for the tardiness of this blog post. And for being behind reading all of your posts too! I'll catch up, I promise. My company got sold again yesterday, so everyone keep all your crossables crossed that I get to keep my job. You just never know when these things happen! The only bonus is that supposedly we're all getting a 3% raise next pay period. Hopefully they keep us all that long! Anyway, you're not here to read about work, you're here for ponies! There are a LOT of changes going on around here. (Cause who doesn't want lots of change in the middle of a global pandemic, amiright?)

First up, assistant trainer quit her position which is a huge bummer. I know I voiced on here before that she was just a groom prior, but after getting to know to her and taking some lessons with her, I really grew to like and respect her. I wasn't going to learn tons from her, but she rides softly, the horses love her, and she gives confidence building lessons. All good things. But she is feeling burned out, and I can't blame a girl for taking care of herself. She will still be around for a few more weeks though, so I'll try and appreciate her while she's still there. 

Gratuitous photo of my rig to break up text...

Next up, the BIG news! Eros and Shiny are home!!! It's amazing. I'm so happy they're here. But let's back up and talk about the week. 

The vet was out Friday and Eros had his recheck. He received a glowing report. The bone is looking tons better, and doc feels confident we can start legging him back up. Slowly. Very slowly. We're cleared for a 10 minute tack walk and five minutes of trotting. We can add five more minutes each week. Once we get to 15, we'll do another recheck. Spoiler alert though, we're probably going to spend two weeks at five minutes because the weather is not cooperating. More on that later.

Shiny and I had our last lesson on Saturday as boarders at the barn. You guys. I have no media, but she was SO GOOD! We jumped a little course, complete with a bending line. She jumped all the scary boxes, and never peaked at anything. She got tired quickly though, and when that happened, she seemed to fall off her lead behind. So we definitely need to build some fitness, especially with the back end. I see lots of trot poles in our future. I need to get some new cavalletti since mine rotted awhile back. 

The guys working on my fence and my footing burned the candle at both ends finishing everything up on Saturday. They had an interesting work schedule in that they started weeks ago, but didn't show up everyday. Very odd. But it got done on time so no complaints. Well. I have one, but I'm not sure it's anyone's fault but mother nature's. The footing looked great when they were done with it:

I walked around in it and it felt great too. But then the rain came. I think because it was so fluffed up, it really soaked up the rain. But not evenly, so some areas wound up a bit sucky, while other parts were fine. It seemed better today at lunch time once the water had a chance to soak through the base, but then in between lunch time and riding time today we got slammed with a big ol' thunder storm complete with downpours and lots of wind. That actually seemed to help somehow, but there were a few spots that were still squishy. But again... I'll get to all that later. Back to the weekend! (Boy am I all over the place today.)

I was up fairly early Sunday to get to the barn. I figured I'd ride everyone over there and just get them settled in at home after. It was a good plan actually. Shiny had an easy ride, though I made sure to really take the time to appreciate the enormous outdoor ring, since mine... isn't so huge. I did Pammon next. 

And remembered a between the ears photo!

He was a good boy too. He's up to 20 minutes trotting and about 8 minutes of cantering. Which, I will tell you, when you're not yet cleared for actual flat work (like circles and leg yields and what not) those times are REALLY long. Especially that 8 minutes of canter. It's kind of like riding a bike on a large circle up hill the whole way around. Definitely time to start coming off the ace! Lol. 

Eros went last, and he was his perfect self. Once he was done, I set to work getting everything packed. Most of the horse sized stuff stayed for Pammon to use. I really don't need any of the things I had there at home, except for my saddles. I don't have duplicates of those, obviously. All of Shiny's things needed to come home though, so I packed everything into tubs to go straight to storage. It was tough trying to cram two lockers worth of stuff into one... but I got it done! The kids loaded up easily, and before I knew it, we were unloading at home! They settled right in and had a nice first night. Eros was a little more excited that I would have preferred for his first turnout Monday morning (Shiny can't be bothered with such nonsense), but he did himself no harm thankfully, and quickly found the hay. 

Peep him in front of the red barn. Shiny is down the hill behind him. This is the view from new craft room. And yes, I was totally stalking. 

I had planned to give them Monday off like they were used to, and I think I am going to try and stick with that Monday off schedule. We'll see how that plays out. Anyway, after work Monday, they enjoyed a relaxing day and I set the jumps up.

In the rain. (Of course it stopped by the time I was done.) Jumps don't set themselves, and it was either that or finish unpacking (and repacking) the trailer. I didn't want my show trunk and other various items I haven't packed in there yet getting wet, so the course it was! (Jokes on me though, it rained so hard today the trunk at the end of the barn wound up soaked anyway. Should have closed that one door at lunch time!

It then rained all night. Ugh. Tuesday (after work of course) I got on Shiny to test the footing. Poor thing is my test subject. Interestingly enough, in the crap sinky, uneven footing she never stumbled. Not once. Apparently, she's more steady on her feet when the footing is bad? Figures. We did very little as I'm not looking to get anyone hurt. I just wanted to get on and see how she'd be. We mostly walked and did a little trot. And tried out the Pivo.

Enjoy the gifs because it's much too late to be dealing with videos.

Pivo is pretty cool, but it likes you on a smallish circle. It kept losing us if we ventured too far away. But I didn't have it in the middle of the ring either, I think that would help. It just wasn't feasible with the mud the other day. We'll try again this weekend hopefully. I may even try to run both that and the Soloshot and have media galore! Time will tell if I get my shit together with all that. *note to self: charge the stuff! For anyone curious, I have the older "red" Pivo. I jumped in when it was still a Kickstarter campaign. (Or whichever platform it was on.) It seems to work almost as well as the silver since the software is the same. 

I was really on the fence about riding Eros in the questionable footing. Ultimately, I decided to get on and just walk. I'm glad I did as he was just fine. And we got a little Pivo footage too, though obviously it was super boring.

When I went out to throw hay at lunchtime today, the footing was looking much better. But as I mentioned earlier we got nailed with a crazy storm right after that.

That went on for about an hour... Oddly enough, I think it rained so hard it packed the sand back down. So most of the ring was actually pretty rideable. Shiny got in a light walk, trot, canter, and Eros got his trotting in too. But for Eros, I skipped one side where I felt it was a little soft. Better safe than sorry. I think once it dries up a good drag should have things back in order. Only problem is apparently the Gator battery is dead and my helper didn't tell me till I asked if he had time to drag the ring. Sigh. I'll hopefully get someone out to replace that this week. Always something, right? #firstworldproblems

You're probably all wondering what Pammon is up to by himself at the boarding barn. I decided to keep him on training board one more month while he weans off the ace and eventually the resurpine. And also while I adjust to having horses at home again. Having him on full training means that on the days I ride, they actually do all the care for me. And on days I can't go, they ride him for me. And it's all included in the full training fee. So my plan after this week is to go ride him early before work. I can get there at 7:30, he'll be all ready for me, and I can hand him off and go straight to work when we're done. I'm not sure if that will still be feasible once I have to go back to the office... They MIGHT want me to shower first... But for now it's a good plan. I'm not the biggest fan of having other people do my horse care for me, but I can only do so much. Three horses in two places is a lot to juggle while also working. Doable. But it's a lot. So while I can have some help, I'm taking advantage of it. My wallet is saying I can't do it too much longer. I do miss that braiding side gig income that I'm not making this year!

Phew. So that brings you all up to speed! TLDR: Company sold, horses home, except Pammon. Rain and mud. Everywhere.

Anyway, how was your week? Is it more of the same, or are you going through a lot of changes too? Are you all staying healthy and safe? CT and RI are the only two states doing okay right now it seems like. I'm hoping we keep that status! Stay safe my friends!

Jampy

I wasn't expecting to write this post. Today around 11:30 am I  say goodbye to Jampy. He is in late stage kidney failure, and there's really nothing more that can help him. My vet calls it a silent killer because you don't really see the signs until it's much too late to reverse them. It's possible, likely even, that this is what contributed to his founder last year. There's really no way to know in retrospect. I suppose it doesn't really matter anymore.

The only nice thing in all of this is that today, he gets to eat whatever he wants. A whole bag of carrots? Sure! 467 peppermints? You got it big guy. Whatever you want. I've groomed him about 75 times since getting the blood work results last night. I think he's probably tired of me by now. I came inside to let my helper have some time alone to say good bye. They've been together almost as long as Jampy and I have. I didn't really know what to do with myself this morning, so here I am, typing this post. It seems wrong somehow to start writing this while he's still out in the barn, alive and, well, not quite well. But alive. In a few hours he'll be gone. Just like that.

I'm not sure how Rio will do alone in the barn. We will have to see. He's been ok before when Jamp was away showing, but it was always a short time, a few days, a week max. Maybe Eros will come home for a bit. Maybe I'll find a rescue pony. I don't know. Those boys are best friends, and I'm sure Rio will feel this is as much as I do.

I want to sit down and write a proper send off to my boy. But I can't do that right now. Right now, I need to go stuff him full of whatever he wants and tell him how much I love him.

What's Up Wednesday

Horses. Ugh. This past week has been full of horses, though less riding than I would like. I'm gonna just go ahead and start by talking about Jamp and his current status. Thursday we had the vet out for the last of their vaccinations and to get some final x-rays on Jamp's front feet. The visit really went well!

His final rotation is about a 2.5% which is considered clinically normal, so that is absolutely the best news we could have gotten. Woohoo! It also cleared him to start having turnout and hand walks, and eventually get back to work under saddle. The under saddle part will wait until his brain grows back in a little so nobody dies.
Saturday he got a little ace and I took him for a handwalk.

He was more interested in staring at the woods than actually walking, but it was nice to have him outside again. It was a beautiful day too.
And then on Sunday, I gave him a little ace, and set him free in the ring. At first he was hell bent on eating any weed he could find. So in my panic that he might founder again, I put a grazing muzzle on him. He still wanted to eat any weed he could find, but he had less success, and he eventually did some walking around. I didn't leave him out too long as it started pouring. Plus you know, baby steps.

He has, however, been very picky about his hay. He really hates it steamed, and didn't eat much over the weekend at all. He put his other feed away just fine though, so I wasn't too concerned.
You know how that goes, however. One should ALWAYS be concerned.
Monday comes and he seems fine. Still not really eating hay, and therefore less poop in the stall. To be expected. But by dinner time Monday, there was no poop still. He hadn't pooped since he got his stall cleaned in the morning. That's a really long time. But wasn't acting colicky at all and had eaten most of his lunch hay by then. His back legs were a bit stocked up. So I texted the vet, just to give him a heads up that he may or may not be trying to colic. Obviously, the moment I text the vet, he poops. So that was nice. Love a nice pile of horse poo!
So per vets orders, I let him hang out outside for a bit, just in the walkout. I gave him some dry hay figuring a little cough might be better than his belly not doing its job. He gobbled that up, and I was feeling better about things.
But when I brought him in he was trembling. Granted the temp outside had dropped about 20 degrees, and he just had a lined sheet on... but that still freaked me out. Doc said he may be really chilled because he'd had ace over the weekend which can mess with their internal thermostat. Which I knew, but wasn't thinking about. So ok, I get him warmed up and tucked in and he seemed fine. I wrapped him behind too since he had some stocking up. He can do that after getting vaccinations, so again, wasn't too freaked out about that.

BUT I SHOULD ALWAYS FREAK OUT. Because horses.
Tuesday he seemed ok in the morning. I came home at lunch and he was napping.

He usually naps a little earlier, but sometimes I catch him down at lunch time. So still wasn't freaking out. (Shoulda.) He got up after I threw hay and filled the chopped hay pans. Was eating. Decided to play it safe, and let the vet's office know he should probably get a visit in the next day or two, because I just felt he wasn't right.
Well. I got home from work and went straight to check on him. He was up, but had clearly been pawing and banging on the door much of the day. He also wasn't standing on his right hind and seemed like he couldn't walk on it. Crap. He was less stocked up than the day before, almost not at all in the apparently painful leg, and just a bit in the other one. So that kind of rules out cellulitis. Maybe. I mean, you can't rule anything out when your horse is as weird as Jamp. I took his temp because that's always what you do...

Shit. Ok, text vet. He says, sounds like cellulitis, but it should be very swollen and painful if I palpate it, which it's not. He said could possibly be an abscess, he's seen them cause fevers on occasion. So plan for the evening was to give him banamine and try to get the temp down. He didn't want to pull the shoe and poke around for an abscess until the fever was controlled. I gave him oral paste, which took awhile, but did bring the fever down. It was 101. 2 when I went to bed, and was down to pretty normal at 100.5 in the morning. By morning he had eaten his food (most of his hay, all of everything else) but hadn't pooped still. Wasn't acting colicky at all, and was standing a bit better on the leg. Not perfect, but he could walk again. He did poop later in the morning. Around 9:30. So things are moving in there, just slowly, likely due to lack of hay input. Still doesn't explain the rest. And that's where we're holding right now. I'm going to check him again at lunch time and see what we have, then touch base with the vet. I think we need to do some bloodwork, because something is going on with him. I gave him dry hay a few times in the last few days, and he's not coughing at all. I can't help but wonder if he's had something brewing for awhile, and we just can't quite figure it out. Will update you guys tomorrow if there's anything to update.
As for the other guys... Rio got to have a lunge Saturday in the beautiful weather!

Unfortunately, he's ridiculously lame. So I guess riding really is over with him. At some point this spring, I will have our lameness guy out, so maybe there's something we can do to make him not ridiculously unsound? But I'm holding off until things with Jamp are settled and he's started back under saddle.
Rio sure does look good though (standing still)!

Eros had a nice weekend! I took him outside to ride Saturday since it was so nice, but by the time I got there the wind had really picked up. He wasn't bad, but he was very tense, so I decided to do our trot work out there and take our canter work indoors. It was a good call, he was a little sassy! Poor dude really needs a chance to free lunge and get the sillies out, but we have to wait for the vet to give the all clear on that. He comes Monday, so cross your crossables for that please!

Sunday was cold and rainy, so we rode inside, but the sun was trying to come out when we finished so we went for a nice walk outside. And then I finally tackled the wild mustang mane he had grown over the winter. Looks much less feral now.

I haven't ridden this week, as my stepmom is home for a few days. She'll ride today and tomorrow, but I get Eros back on Thursday. That's probably for the best because I want to stare at Jamp until I know he's feeling better.

And that's about it from here, though honestly, it's about all I can handle. I'm trying to patiently await the warmer spring weather, and maybe healthy and sound horses? I know it's a lot to ask.

How were your weekends? Do anything fun?