What's Up Wednesday

 

I don't have a ton to recap from the last couple weeks. The horses all got ridden but it was an easy couple of weeks for them. An interesting side effect of having a horse like Al and my increasing old age is that I'm now very aware of needing to be smart when I have other commitments. And by that I mean, maybe I shouldn't be jumping him when I have to be in one piece to braid a million horses. So we just flatted. And things were mostly just fine. He's had a few weird days here and there. He's still an extra challenge on windy days, but I guess that's just who he is. Some of the trees are already starting to change color and he definitely has some feelings about that. Part of me thinks that makes him extra odd, like, do most horses even notice that? But also, I have some feelings about summer ending so I can't really blame him. Perhaps he's just reacting to my own disappointment. 

Sunday stuff

They all had Friday, Sunday, and Monday off this past week, and while Eros and Shiny figured they'd retired and were quite content with that, Al was for sure BORED. In all caps. Poor buddy. I thought about lunging him before I got on Tuesday, but I was like meh.... he hasn't needed that all summer. But obviously, since I'm talking about it, I was wrong. I will give him credit though. He tried VERY hard to be a good boy while I was on him, and he also very politely told me he was struggling. All of that without coming completely unhinged. Which is a pretty big step in the right direction for him. So I finally listened to him, hopped off, and tossed him on the lunge. And did he need it! He did a butt tuck and scoot. And THEN he did a big BUCK! He rarely bucks. And when he does they're usually pretty sad little ones. (Thank goodness for that, can you imagine if he was a spinner AND a bucker?? no thanks to that.) Anyway, he let out a big one and managed to break one of the top boards of the ring. Crazy kid. Thankfully the wild was short lived and by the time we went the second direction he was all tuckered out. We had a short ride afterwards and he was still a little spooky but was good enough. I had hoped to jump him around today, but he was exhausted from his shenanigans. So we did a couple little things and called it a day. Maybe tomorrow we'll try again. 

I did jump Eros a little last week because I trust him more. Yeah I said it! Haha! Anyway, he was perfect. I noticed he's torpedoing significantly less since he's had his injections. I also think I've already mentioned that. But I'm still noticing it, so it's still a valid statement! 

I let Shiny's kiddo jump him a little today because it was her last day riding for the summer today. She's headed back to Florida for the school year. We'll miss her so much! But obviously we had to do some extra fun things for the last day. So one of them was jumping Eros a little. I don't usually share photos of her here, but I'm gonna today because they were so cute.

Doesn't she look cute on him?? He was so good. It was fun to watch them. 

I've only ridden Shiny a handful of times the last few weeks because her kiddo has been doing most of her rides. For their super fun last day today we put one of the jumps up to 2'6". I don't think Shiny's jumped that high in like three years. The first time kiddo had a mild panic and they kind of three legged it. But I was actually kind of glad that happened because she realized Shiny can absolutely still handle a mistake at 2'6" and so there's no need to be worried. The next time they found it better, and then the last time it was nearly perfect! I was so proud of them both!

Okay, maybe it was a little tight. But whatever, it was adorable, and they were so brave! 

Now that we're all caught up on horses... I have braiding stories! The first weekend went fine, nothing crazy happened. Horses were all good, and customers almost all paid nearly on time. Just still waiting on one... So that's annoying. But whatever. Uneventful. Photos from weekend 1:

Week two is where things went a little.... weird. So initially I was told there would be 10 manes night one, nothing night two, and then nine for the last night. I then double checked if they wanted tails and they did, but that it would be 9 the first night, a few tails night two, and then down to 5 for the last night. I had turned down another of my regulars because I didn't think I could do 14 in one night if they were not in the same location. I still don't think I could do that. Anyway, I turned down the second customer for night one, but did say I could do the other nights. And I gave them a name of someone who could probably help for the first night. And they said they'd let me know if they needed me the other nights. Which they never did, but I just annoying checked in each night. They were all set. I hope I didn't lose that account for the future. But it is what it is. Phew. Okay, follow all that? Yeah me neither, but anyway, let's move along. 

So night one arrives and I get my list. Turns out, three of those nine have their manes roached so I only need to do their forelocks. So that was annoying because I could have done the other account. But I nicely asked trainer of the roached manes if next time she could count those separately because I passed on some other work that I might have had time for. She was very apologetic and said I could charge for full manes anyway, but I said I wouldn't do that. Even if I wanted to, that's just not right. And I still had six manes to do anyway plus a few tails. Plenty of work. So I start braiding around I think 10 pm. Maybe 9:30. Who can remember. First horse gets done easily. Was a little annoying because it was a cribber but I found a spot to tie her where she had nothing to crib on and it was fine. 

The second horse though... Man. I don't know if it had sleep deprivation, if it was narcoleptic, or what. But the thing kept like knee buckling. And I'm thinking wow, this seems really dangerous for me... A few times I had to jump off the ladder because I thought it was going to fall on me. So I'm almost done with it. When I braid, I do all the little braids down the neck and then tie them up the other direction so I finish up at the poll. So I'm literally tying the last braid, and the thing starts to fall again. I went to jump off the ladder, but I wasn't fast enough, and the horse kind of fell into me. Which might have been fine if I was a normal person, but do recall, that at this show roughly three years ago now, I had a ladder accident and ruptured my ACL. So if I twist the wrong way, my leg kind of folds up and down I go. So there was a very loud pop and I find myself laying on the floor of the stall in excruciating pain, and all I could think was wow, how could this possibly be happening again at this same show?! Seriously. HOW? And also, what might I have torn this time because there's no ACL left to tear. Anyway, these thoughts happened pretty quickly and I just as quickly dragged myself to my feet. Well foot. That poor sweet horse, was very concerned, which I appreciated. He didn't mean for it to happen. He probably didn't even realize what happened since he wasn't awake for it. (And no he didn't fall all the way down, nor did he fall ON me, just kind of into me then he caught himself.) So here I am, at something like 11:30 at night semi in tears wondering how I'm going to get all my work done. I think I dropped the f bomb several times in a row. Initially I couldn't weight bear at all on that leg. It just wouldn't do it, kind of just folded up if I tried. So I was like okay, well maybe I can just tie the horses in such a way that the wall can help me up and down the ladder. But I had time to figure that out. This horse wasn't very tall so I figured I'd get that last braid tied from the ground and then I had to braid the tail which I could also do from the ground and I could just stand on the one leg for all that. I figured by the time I finished that maybe I'd be more stable on the hurt leg. 

Thankfully that theory held up. But being the old woman I am, there was much grunting each time I had to climb up or down the ladder. I really hope the other braiders around had headphones in and couldn't hear me. Ha! I've never been happier to be done braiding as I was that morning. Well that's a lie. The other time I busted my knee at this show I think I felt the same way. 

And thankfully the braids all came out pretty well all things considered! I didn't take photos of the forelock only horses, but here's the rest of my work from that night:

Anyway, I finished up just before 6 and went right to sleep! After all that, I was actually relieved I didn't have to do nine manes! These things tend to work out in the end don't they? That all happened Thursday night/Friday morning, so I was very relieved to not have to do barn chores. I don't think I could have gotten the manure tubs into the dumpster with my busted knee. I also had planned for the horses to have the day off Friday which I stuck to as well. Best to rest the leg for a day or two. I forget what I wound up doing all day though. I slept 4 hours and then fed lunch. But honestly I don't remember what else I did that day. Maybe laundry or something. Who knows. I had an easy night's work too which was well received by me. Just one tail! I had hired a nice girl I know from the winter barn to do my chores for me this weekend which turned out to be such a good decision. I didn't really need her for Saturday since I didn't have a late night that night, but given my unsoundness I think it was a good call. She's going to horse and dog sit for me next month when I go to a wedding so it was also good for her to get used to the routine here before she's here by herself. I came out and helped her with some of the chores, but did keep it to light duty so as not to anger the knee too much. And then Shiny's kid came over and we rode the horses which wasn't terrible, but my leg felt super wobbly. I did bust out the old knee brace which helped a lot. Saturday night was also lighter than planned, but still a decent amount of work. Four manes and three tails. It was much easier to get up and down the ladder that night, and thankfully the tippy horse wasn't on my list! (Thank goodness!) This last night went smoothly and I even half braided one while it was snoozing:

These horses were all really sweet. And while initially I was irritated with the disorganization of their trainer and the confusion with the numbers... She actually reached out to me Sunday and apologized and said this was the most horses she'd ever had at a show at one time and it was a big learning weekend for her. She also tipped me $400. So no hard feelings here! It was nice of her to follow up though because the whole weekend I was thinking that she wasn't this disorganized the last time I braided for them and I was convinced I'd just forgotten about it maybe? But no, I think she was just overwhelmed this time. I didn't tell her about the mishap with the tippy horse. I think she'd have felt terrible and honestly it wasn't like it was anyone's fault. 

Nights 2 and 3

I got home Sunday morning around 5 and since I had help that day I slept for a solid 5 hours. It was lovely. And then I popped out to the barn to make hay bags and check in with my temporary helper. She had things under control so I treated myself to a few hours at our town fair that was happening this weekend. The games haven't gotten outrageously expensive (five dollars per dart to pop balloons?!) so I skipped that section which was a bummer because I love a good carnival game. But I did treat myself to a baked potato, ice cream, a smoothie, and some kettle corn. 

Watched the horse pulls which was only three pairs this year so not all that exciting. But the horses were beautiful and clearly well cared for. And the horsemen were REAL horsemen. For the last round when the weight was really high, one pair excused themselves because they knew it was too much for their horses. And then one of the other pairs called it right away when the horses struggled, and didn't try to push them too hard. It was really nice to see. You could tell the horses enjoyed the job, and they wanted to get it done! So it was nice that their humans knew their limits. Very nice to see. 

I also of course checked out the bunnies (my favorites!!) and the birds were in the same building. This year there were pigeons which I don't remember seeing before. Did you know that some pigeons are plumed? I did not know that. 

Fancy pigeons!

So anyway. It's been a wild couple of weeks! I'm very much looking forward to getting back into my normal routine. I'm debating whether or not I want to get the knee looked at again. I'm sure they'll just say I really need to get it fixed now so I'm not sure I want to hear that... It's not feeling too bad right now, but from past experience I know that might not mean it's not actually bad. I dunno. I'm gonna ponder on it for a bit. Have any of you had a knee repaired? If it was your right knee, how long until you could ride? Or drive? I'm hearing minimum of three months to ride. Not sure about driving. Ugh. Science needs to figure how to fix things with less recovery time. 

What's Up Wednesday

 

This week was MUCH quieter and less exciting than last. I already told you guys about the talk with the animal communicator which was on Friday. I can't say that it's helped us with any major breakthrough... Al was still kind of a nutter all week. OH! One thing I forgot to mention about our conversation. When I first asked how I can help Al to be less anxious, after he said he didn't understand the question, the communicator asked if we were riding indoors. Because he was telling her how much he dislikes that. Which is a little creepy cause ya know, he HATES riding inside. Hence why despite my skepticism I do feel like maybe there's something to it. But it could have been a good guess. Lots of nervous horses hate indoors. Anyway, I just said we ride inside in the winter, but now we're outside. And he complained about the neighbor. I think I mentioned that part already. Anyway, back to this week! 

I got a last minute text on Wednesday asking if I could braid a horse Thursday night. I had nothing on the agenda, so jumped at the opportunity. It was for a mane and tail which is exactly the amount of money my new lessons are, so that was super. Hopefully I get some more work throughout the summer. I love a small braiding job (like just one or two horses) because it doesn't anger my carpal tunnel too much and it's a nice little chunk of cash in my pocket for just a few hours of work.

Saturday Al was such a nutter I ended up giving Eros the day off because I was all used up by the time I finished with Al. (I rode Shiny first, so she got worked.) Sunday everyone was in a better mood, and we enjoyed a Sunday Funday. Shiny had the best one, we rode bareback (with the bareback pad which according to the animal communicator is not naked enough for Shiny...) in the backyard. She is always so much happier outside the ring. I really need to take her out to some trail rides. Unfortunately, my trail buddy extraordinaire is sidelined with an injury this summer. I think Shiny would be fine alone, but I'm quite sure I'd get lost since I've never gone out on the state trails. 

And then the heat wave arrived! Actually Sunday was pretty swampy too, but not so bad we had to cancel Sunday Funday. But Monday and Tuesday were pretty oppressive for the horses. (Not for me though!) They all enjoyed a couple of vacation days (as mentioned yesterday). Monday was a hang out in your stall and let me do my chores kind of day. But Tuesday I spent some time with them. Everyone had a bubble bath and Eros actually let me clean his sheath! First time ever without sedation. It was nasty in there. I honestly don't know how males walk around with those things. 

I don't think the boys were especially thrilled with having to be clean:

Unable to stand still because there was water
dripping from his legs.

Staring in disbelief at the area recently violated.

Al looked a little hivey last night and earlier today though. I'm not sure if he was sensitive to the shampoo we used, or if I didn't rinse it well enough? Or maybe it was just from the heat. Not sure. He's never done that before. Seemed unbothered, and it wasn't bad enough to treat. But something to keep an eye out for in the future. 

I think Shiny appreciated the tubby though!

She thanked me by peeing in the crossties while I waited for her legs to dry a little bit before going back to her stall... Why wouldn't I want to wash the floor again on a hot day? Right? Thanks Shiny. Probably my punishment for not rewarding her drug seeking behavior with the communicator. 

I went back and forth on what to do with them today. It was still pretty hot, high was 96 and it was more humid than yesterday, but there was a strong breeze. I finally decided to tack walk mostly and they each trotted one lap each direction. No one seemed uncomfortable so I thin it was an okay decision. They came in and got rinsed off with a fan in front of them after their "ride". 

I'm not sure if it was the heat or if the esomeprazole is magic, but Al walked around the entire perimeter of the ring, both directions, on a loose rein without spooking. The same with our little bit of trotting. I know better than to get excited about this. But I want to acknowledge that happened. AND WITH WIND! How glorious. Crossing my fingers that it takes. 

Tomorrow it's supposed to drop down to a high of 74. We'll probably all think it's cold and be sad. Or wild. One of those. But I am looking forward to getting some real rides in! 

Hope you all are surviving this heat dome! Did you give your horses extra days off? If not, what did you do with them? 

What's Up Wednesday

 

Holy moly guys I am doing a terrible job of managing my time lately. I have been in the barn until 8 pm the last two nights. On the bright side, I have gotten a lot done! I'm chipping away at all the winter laundry, clipped the pony, rearranged the feed room. There's still a million more things to do, but at least progress is happening. 

The horses have had a pretty easy time of it for various reasons this week. I like to let them ease back into things when we move and the weather very much forced that on us too. It's like mother nature was like, oh you don't have an indoor to use anymore? How about a months worth of rain in two days? That mother nature. So funny.... 

We moved home last Wednesday, and didn't ride that day because it was a busy long day. But we did ride Thursday and everyone seemed pretty happy to be home. Poor Al nearly lost his marbles before I even got on though. And it wasn't his fault! I may have already told this story last week, but I can't remember. So here it is again:

I chose to ride Al first, as I normally do, on Thursday. We were taking our hand walk around the ring which is part of our pre ride routine. (It takes me forever to get this horse worked every day.) One lap each way before we get on. It seems to put him at ease a bit so that's what we've been doing. He often comes out breathing anxiously, but by the time we've walked about half a lap he usually settles down. Anyway, we were wrapping up our stroll, heading away from the neighbors property, when Al bolted past me, nearly knocking me down. I got him stopped and we both turned to face the neighbor's property. At that moment, said neighbor tossed something that sounded like sand straight into the very thin tree line that we share. This is the exact spot where Al spooked two years ago and tossed me. So already a questionable area of the ring for him. I actually said something to the neighbor and while I'm not sure he actually apologized he did say he didn't see us. I was really worried Al would spiral and I'd never get him over there again. I had a few options of how to handle this situation. But drawing on previous experiences with him, it seems like when things like this happen, I need to let it be. If I make a big deal out of it, and try to get him over it, he will never forget. If I just set it aside for the day, most often he's forgotten about it by the next day. So I chose this approach. We did some ground work in other parts of the ring to get his mind off his angst. And then I climbed aboard for our ride. I chose to just ride the quarter line on that side of the ring that day. And you know what? It wasn't that bad! It wasn't a hard ride, and we didn't do anything fancy at all. But we walked and trotted and did a little canter. We made some circles. No one died! And sometimes that's all you need. 

The next day he was fine about that long side. He's always a little suspicious over there, but so are the others. I get it. There is a terrifying monster over there. Fair. So does he stare out of the ring on that side of the ring? Yep. But that's okay, he's allowed to use his eyeballs as long as he keeps his legs moving in a forward trajectory. And he's been doing that. Good boy Al! We are starting to wean off the ulcer meds this week, so please cross all your crossables that he keeps his sanity. He can't stay on all of that forever! He continued to have easy rides through the weekend as I'm also adjusting to doing all the chores and then riding all the horses. Guess who isn't all that fit?? THIS GIRL! Monday is their day off and it poured buckets all day long. Tuesday was supposed to be more of the same, but it wasn't raining when I went out to the barn. The radar said I had time to get at least one worked so I chose Al and we got about half a ride in before the skies opened up. We made it back inside just before the brightest bolt of lightning I have ever seen. We got quite wet.

Today he gave me a really nice ride. He started out a little angsty and I didn't have high hopes. But by the end of the ride he was moving out in a HUGE trot and making circles without spooking at the jumps. It as lovely. I MIGHT, maybe try trotting some little jumps with him tomorrow depending on what's happening next door of course. We shall see how it goes. 

Eros has been his usual perfect self for the most part. He also has it pretty easy since we got home. I think he's much happier in my footing than he was at the other barn because he's been much more forward. He's been a little sassy, but not in a bad way. Today he did some grown up horse work like counter canter and lateral work. Vacation's over kids! I'm going to hold off on jumping him for a little bit. I haven't been thrilled with his soundness up front, so I want to take it a little easy and work more on fitness and flatwork. He's due for shoes, so I'm hoping once we get that done he'll feel a lot better. 

I have so much to report on with Shiny! First off, she's like a whole different pony back here at home than she was at our winter barn. I had really been struggling to get her moving there. Like full on having to whip on her. It was upsetting, and I was really starting to worry that something was very wrong with her. (Which I haven't fully let go of, but more on that shortly.) While she still does the Shiny shuffle for her warm up, since we've been home, the rides have been so SO forward. And I don't have to beg for it! I think maybe the heavy footing outside there was too much for her. 

The not great thing that's been going on with her, is ticks. We went on that fun trail ride for our last ride at the other barn, and I THOUGHT the 8 ticks I pulled off her were all of the ticks. BUT THEY WERE NOT. She started having all these tick bites all over her. She really reacts to them, so I knew what they were. Of course when more kept appearing I started to panic that maybe it was something else. So during my spiral, on Sunday evening after doing all the chores and riding all the horses, I decided to clip her fetlocks so I could clean up the bites on her legs better. But she had bites higher up too. So I ended up doing all of her legs up to her body and planned to finish clipping her Tuesday. 

It looked like she forgot her pants.

I found one more tick during this clipping. But then Tuesday (when her and Eros' rides got rained out)  and I finished clipping her body (except her ears, I need sedation for that part) I found more. Four more. And more bites. And then I found ANOTHER one today in her forelock. She now has nearly 30 bites on her. I really think I've found all the ticks, but her tail is so thick at the top, as is her mane, that it's still possible there's more. I'm worming them all tomorrow, and I've heard Ivermectin can help, so hopefully that will be the end of it. But I feel TERRIBLE about all these ticks. And this is why I don't trail ride. I'd forgotten. But now I remember. 

Nakee pony, covered in tick bites.

We have the vet coming out next Wednesday for our second round of shots, and Lyme titers for everyone! She has a chronically high titer normally, so I have a feeling there will be some doxy in her future. I also want to talk to him about her allergies. She hasn't coughed at all in several weeks, and she came off the Ventipulmin earlier this week. My other vet mentioned possibly getting her a nebulizer, so I'm curious to see what this one thinks when he listens to her lungs. Especially now that she's off the meds. I'm not against getting that for her if she needs it. But I'm hopeful her allergies are better now that she's home. The last thing I need to talk to him about is her body condition. I'm really happy with her weight, but I'm not thrilled with her muscle tone. Though this could very well be due to her lack of interest in you know... working the last several months. I've never seen her without a giant round bum, so that freaks me out a little bit that it's so not round now. 

Like... where's the rest of it? I'm pretty sure my ass is bigger than my pony's now. Awkward. Her topline is looking better than it was earlier in the spring when I had the vet out for her. So that's good news at least. I really need to find some money and get her a better fitting saddle soon. Nebulizer, saddle... this pony is getting expensive! Good things she's the cutest. 

In other news, I made the most exciting discovery the other day. I had thought my custom trunk from the old barn was bigger than my trunks I had at home. But I measured it in preparation of starting the hunt for a green cover for it. And it's the same size! So I just pulled the cover off one of my pretty trunks and put it on the blue one from the old place and my tack room looks so much better now. I need to rearrange things in there though. With the addition of that trunk, I should be able to rearrange things and take out a few other things in there to make everything less cramped. Work in progress. For now though, at least things match again.

I'd much rather look at this one uncovered. So pretty!

I got a new cabinet in the feed room so I could get ride of the Smartpak drawers. I put that together on Monday, and started moving things around in there. I think I want to get a few more cabinets and do more rearranging, but that will probably have to wait a little bit. After Shiny gets what she needs. 

New cabinet in between the feed bins and the boot cabinet. 

This is the mess that needs more cabinets. Work in progress.

There's a ledge that's about 10 inches wide on the two outside walls of this room. So nothing would be flush against the wall. Which would make a lovely home for rodents. So I'm not sure what I want to do exactly. I'm thinking maybe put the feed bins against where the ledge is on one of the walls, since they're not tall and easy to clean behind (and keep an eye out for unwanted visitors) and then have cabinets along the wall where the bins are now. OR I can see about getting a little extension made for the ledge so the cabinets could be flush with the wall and just slightly elevated. But that sounds more expensive. Plenty of time to figure it out since I'm not buying them just yet anyway. 

And my last interesting thing from this week is that I got to braid for one of fellow winter boarders on Saturday night. She shows dressage and asked if I could do something fun. So I tried this:

His mane was a little too thin toward the bottom so it didn't come out exactly as I'd hoped. But I've only ever done this once before, so I think I can improve on it in the future. The customer was happy though, and that's the most important thing! They won their class too!

And that's it from here! It's been a long week, but it's so nice to have the kiddos home in my backyard. Time to start getting to work!

What's Up Wednesday

 

I gotta tell you, when I get into the braiding vortex, I don't really store any memories from that timespan... So I have very little recollection of what went on last week. My camera roll is of minimal help either... But we'll see what I can come up with.

Shiny and her kid are KILLING it together! They even jumped a few 2'3" fences which is huge because her kiddo hasn't been feeling that brave prior to coming up here this summer. I'm very proud of them. Shine's been good for me too but I haven't jumped her in awhile. I like to keep jumpies to twice a week, and her kiddo's been doing both days. Which I'm totally happy with, because it's so fun to see them together. 

Eros is doing well. I keep thinking he maybe doesn't feel his best some days, but the more we do, the better he feels, so I think it's partly just strength building. I let him trot some teeny jumps today, and he was great, though if we had cantered them there would have been some torpedoing. But look how cute:

He's too much. I just love this horse. I've been silently thinking about trying some dressage with him, but honestly, I don't think I have the attention span for dressage. And seeing him jump this little fence... I think he still wants to be a hunter horse. At least for now. Plus, we can't use earplugs for dressage. And we are ear plug dependent. 

And then there's the problem child. Al blew that abscess last week, and I had been soaking and wrapping it, but my farrier still hadn't come by the end of the week to clean it up. At that point, the other heel was starting to crack, and there was black stinky abscess material kind of coming out all over the frog area. (Though he still seemed perfectly comfortable on the foot. I'm not sure this horse feels pain appropriately.) My vet actually checked in with me on Friday though. I said I wasn't thrilled with how it looked and sent him a photo. He was nearby so said he could stop by. Yes please! He pulled the shoe and trimmed away all the dead stuff:

It was an interesting enough case that he made a video for his socials. That's our second on there if anyone's keeping track. His one of Shiny's splinter went viral. I may never be famous, but my horses kind of are in veterinary circles. (In fact, they use Rio as a case study at Cornell now.) I'm really not sure I should be proud of this. Ha! Anyway... Doc said to give Al the weekend off, then get the shoe back on and he should be good to go. I also had him palpate on that front leg that had been swollen since he was there, and he wasn't concerned. Phew. 

So the shoe went back on today, and I was excited to get back to work! But of course he was all sorts of angsty due to the lack of work the past week. And it was windy. But still, I just used our safe spaces and stayed calm for him. It was hard to really tell how he felt because when he's spooky like that he doesn't want to come forward. He didn't feel sound enough to me, but honestly, I couldn't really get a good read on what was happening under me. My plan is to lunge him tomorrow so I can actually see what he looks like. And if it's not good, I'll schedule ANOTHER vet appointment. Our chiro comes tomorrow too though, so maybe it's something she can fix. Fingers crossed. I'm a little frustrated because we've just been so inconsistent this past month or so between this foot stuff and the colicky days a few weeks ago. Plus, my trainer is finally here and I STILL can't have a lesson. Thanks Al. She leaves in like three weeks, so maybe we can get a few in later. I hate to be whiny but summer will be over and once again, we've accomplished nada. I'm not going to dwell on that though. If I can get him sound and going, there are still a couple months at home where we can do whatever we want. And there's lots of little one day shows around here in the fall. If I really want to do this stuff, I need to just go do it! We'll see if Al can get his poo together. 

In other news, I braided a total of 13 manes and 14 tails this weekend.

I also slept from Thursday to Sunday a total of 9 hours. Which... isn't very much. I'm no dummy though! I asked our former weekend worker if she had any interest in doing my chores and turnout Saturday. She did which was a huge help! I got home from braiding at 6:30 Saturday morning, just as she was pulling in to start work. I don't know how braiders do this stuff full time. The hours are nuts. 

I did ride Al and Shiny on Saturday. Al just had a nice grooming. But Sunday? Sunday, I got home from braiding at 3 am, and then slept until 7. So chores started a little bit late. My town has an autmn fair every year this weekend, and I really wanted to get over there, so I decided to let the horses have extra turnout time and skip riding that day. So I made it over to the fair in the afternoon and ate myself silly. I started with a baked potato, then took a stroll through some of the buildings to see the arts and crafts submissions. Then I got ice cream and went to watch the horse pulls while I ate it.

These guys were the winners

Took another stroll and saw the baking submissions. Which by the last day of the fair were not looking so good... (It was HOT in that building!) Then I went to see the bunnies. I LOVE bunnies. Like, not enough to have one of my own, but I love seeing them. Especially the loppy eared ones. I have wild bunnies here at the farm, so it's kind of like having my own but better since they feed themselves and I don't have to take them to the vet. 

After the bunnies I strolled over to the moo cows, which were all super cute and content. 

Jersey's are my favorite moos I think. They're just so cute with their huge noses.

I wrapped up my day at the fair with some pulled pork nachos (highly recommend). I wanted to get some thai egg rolls to go for dinner later, but they were all out. So instead I settled for a bag of kettle corn. And that was it for my day at the fair! I'm glad I fit it in, and I think the extra day off was actually great for the horses. Shiny and Eros both felt really great on Tuesday which usually isn't the case after a day off. So it was a great decision all around.

And I think that's really about it from the past week. It's all I can remember anyway. Haha!

What's Up Wednesday

 

It's funny how weird time gets when you're working late nights. I feel like so much has happened this week, and at the same time like not much happened... So let's see if I can remember what the week was like...

Thursday night was my busiest braid night. I just had four horses, but they were in two different towns so it was a pretty long night. I got home at 4:30 AM. 

I didn't really plan for a second jump school this week just because I knew I'd be a little brain foggy after my long night Thursday. (We usually jump Friday or Saturday.) I did end up hopping Shiny over the cavalletti height stuff, but mostly she just flatted with me this past week/weekend. I honestly can't remember what Al did Friday. I think we may have done the same thing as Shiny. Just popped over the teeny stuff. And Eros just flatted. 

Friday I had an unexpectedly easy night. One of the horses I was supposed to braid that night had been a very naughty boy at the show that morning. His rider was offered another horse to ride that was already getting braided at the show. Kind of a bummer for me to make less money, but I also didn't mind getting home at a reasonable hour. Plus, the rider is a friend of mine, and I was glad she was getting something a little more reliable to ride at finals. I still had one mane and two tails to do at the other barn, so it wasn't a total wash for the evening.

I gave all the horses Saturday off and they got an extra long turnout in exchange.  Even though I was home around 12:30 I was moving pretty slowly in the morning. (I have an autoimmune disease that gets a little pissy when I pull all nighters like I did Thursday, and it takes a few days to get back to "normal".) I also had limited time because I was attending an end of summer Taco Party at a friend's house around 5. So, I just decided they could have the day off. Horses don't HAVE to work six days a week every week. I'm not sure why I feel so much like I'm not fulfilling my duties when they get an extra day off. But I do. I'm working on it. They were no worse for the wear. 

Saturday night I just had one horse on my list so another easy night! Though this horse has something weird going on with his mane in the middle so it was a big of a challenge to try and get it looking nice... Not my best work, but came out well enough for what I had to work with.

Sunday morning wasn't as rough as Saturday since I got a pretty full night's sleep. I banged out stalls in no time at all (probably because they were out longer than usual the day before, but I'm gonna pretend I was super efficient) and then they all had a nice flat ride. Al was a little extra pokey and felt a hair stiff behind, but nothing that out of the ordinary. He has that one foot that sometimes he can be a little funny on so it doesn't concern me too much if he's having a stiff day on it. I know why, and it's nothing terribly serious. Eros and Shiny were both good though. It was a nice day!

And then there was the whole dinner debacle, but I'm still so happy about the Taco Bell. (And this is just one of the many reasons I'm a weirdo.) I seriously am already excited to get it again this Sunday. Can't wait!

Monday is their usual day off and I kept that despite them having Saturday off too. I spent the day running a few errands (needed more yarn and braiding snacks), did my PT exercises so the knee doesn't fail me, and Rita enjoyed a nice walk by the lake. 

And then Tuesday. I rode Shiny first and she was a little annoyed that she hadn't been retired over the weekend, but was otherwise a good girl. Then I went to get Al out. I pick feet in the stall before we come out to minimize aisle mess. And when I got to his back left foot, I noticed a big ol' hole in his heel. 

This is his foot with the stubby coffin bone. So his foot is weird and he can be prone to getting some thrush in there. At first I thought that's what I was looking at. Like that cleft in the frog had maybe gotten icky. But when I really got in there I realized it was a separate hole. And was stinky. Not thrush stinky, abscess stinky. Yuck. And also weird. He was never abscess lame on it. Even Monday when I checked in on them and fed meals, he was always standing comfortably on all his legs. So this was a real surprise, but I guess explains why he felt slightly not great on Sunday. Anyway, I sent a photo to my vet who suggested having my farrier take a look at it. Unfortunately, my farrier is out of town for a few days, so in the meantime we're soaking in epsom salts and wrapping with animalintex. He's perfectly sound on it, but I don't want to work him until it gets checked by a professional, Plus, it is still draining some. BUT THEN, I took him out today, planning a tack walk. And when I picked his feet, I found this leg:

It's VERY swollen. There are two small nicks that you can see in the photo, but I swear he just took the hair off. No blood anywhere. Just like that other week when his back leg did the same thing. I'm guessing either Shiny kicked him again or he really whacked it on something. I do know that he swells up excessively over the tiniest things, so I'm not panicking about it. I decided to go ahead with our tack walk plan since he wasn't limping and that went just fine. Then while I soaked his abscess foot, I put an ice boot in this front one. (I also scrubbed it with betadine first.) 

It did come down some with our walk, so I'm feeling like it will be fine in a day or two. Not a big issue since he's having down time anyway for the abscess. But seriously? We've been waiting ALL summer for trainer to get here, and now he's trying to off himself one leg at a time? Could we just not? 

I mean really. This is ridiculous. Horses are the worst!

I rode Eros today while trainer was here and her kiddo had a lesson on Shiny. Both were great, and Eros got to jump his first cavalletti since last November! And uh... hahaha.... he stopped the first time. There was some crazy noise coming from over by the lake and he was so busy listening to that he didn't notice I was aiming him at a little jump. He came back the second time and jumped it like it was three feet high though. I just did it once, we'll see how he is tomorrow. And if he's still sound, we'll do a couple more on Friday. 

And that's the rundown for the past week/weekend. Anyone else ever seen an abscess blow without the horse having been very lame before hand? It's a first for me! But this is Al. So things are always a little different. Ha!