What's Up Wednesday: Mid Summer bumps in the road

 

Oof! Things have been going so wonderfully smoothly of late, that I knew at some point, things might get a little bumpy. (In Eros' case, literally... Lol!) Fortunately, I'm used to the roller coaster that is life with horses, and none of it earth shattering (so far anyway.) 

The horses had a fairly easy two weeks due to my braiding schedule. As I get older, the all nighters are harder to recover from. I just can't power through like I used to. But I accept that, and I just try to adjust things as best I can. That means some shorter easier rides for the horses. It happens. Plus, I think it's not a bad thing for the horses to have some easy days now and then. They've all been working pretty hard for awhile. The heat that has been oppressing much of the country (world?) has finally arrived here in New England this week, so we're back for another week of easy rides. I'm disappointed about how things have played out though because I was hoping to make our horse show debut this coming Saturday. Due to the forecast mostly (and other things that I'll talk about shortly) that will not be happening. Soon though! That's the great thing about horse shows. There's always another one. Anyway, buckle up, let's revisit the past week!

I think I mentioned last week that Al's quarter crack decided to be stupid and bother him last week. He was sound on it even when it started bleeding. But then my farrier sent his assistant (he himself was out of state shoeing) to put a patch on it and for some reason once that was put on, he was very lame. Which makes no sense as it really shouldn't have bothered him any. But it did, I guess. So we tack walked most of the week. I did some trot each day to evaluate, and by Sunday he was feeling quite a bit better, but not perfect. Fortunately, my farrier was back in town Tuesday and was able to come out. He floated the heel and put him in bar shoes. He felt decent the first day in them, but today (day 2) he felt pretty much back to his old self. THANK GOODNESS! So he hasn't jumped in a bit and obviously is also why we're not showing this weekend. We're going to do an easy lesson this weekend and see how that goes before diving back in to bigger fences and prepping for a horse show. I'm optimistic he'll be just fine. No one seems too concerned so that helps my attitude too. 

With Al on the DL I was half considering taking Eros to the horse show instead. He's been going pretty well, and the local shows around here have schooling divisions with small fences that are open to everyone. Lots of pros ride their green horses or school clients horses in these divisions so I don't feel like it's unfair of me to ride in them. But alas, he too wound up with some extra days off this past week. his hives came back with a vengeance. He's currently on 16 Benadryl twice a day and while he's looking better (and thankfully is hive free where the saddle goes) he's still pretty bumpy. Plus I'm not sure you can show on Benadryl... I still haven't figured out what could be causing this. Nothing at all has changed! Must be some bug that's biting him. Only thing I can think!

He did get to have one jump school last week before the hives got bad. He was pretty great and got some cute screen shots even:

I just love him! I hope we can get him bump free soon and maybe actually take him somewhere to do something fun. 

Pammon is mostly doing well. Riding is going great and he feels pretty good. But (there's always a but right?) he's being REAL weird about drinking water all of the sudden. Like really weird. He goes to take a sip, and then yanks his head away like it hurts him. He is getting water (the bucket levels are dropping as normal) and he likes to soak his own hay, so I feel comfortable that he's getting enough water, but still, it's making me anxious. I have a call in to the vet, but he's scheduled on the other side of the river all week. If he wasn't drinking, doc would come out right away, but I think we can wait until his schedule allows for us, at least for now. This is what he's doing, maybe one of you have seen something like this? It's so odd, and of everyone I've shown it to, none have ever seen it. (I was thinking maybe a broken tooth, but there's no obvious swelling anywhere, his breath isn't stinky, and his nose isn't gunky.)

Prior to this drama though, we did jump our first crossrails last week! BIG DAY!

He was sound after which is even better. Not that I was convinced he wouldn't be or anything... (I totally was. I was sure I broke him with those two crossrails.) Since the start of the bucket nonsense I've shortened our rides. It's been in the 90's with feels like over 100. Just in case he's not actually getting enough water, I don't want to push too hard. He still has to work correctly for our shortened rides though. That part is key to keeping his back happy. Such a balancing act with this horse. 

And then there's Shiny... She's the clutch hitter around here for sure. While she took an unplanned break this winter, she tends to step up to the plate when I need her to. For that reason, I did actually consider taking her to the horse show this weekend, until the hot weather arrived. If it was going to be nice, she'd be going! 

She's feeling quite good after her injections. I'm only jumping her once a week for right now as she eases back into it, but she's jumping small courses very happily. I'm excited to get her a little more fit and move the fences back up to 2' ish. The little wall I have is around that height and I let her pop over that this past week, but otherwise I've been keeping things around 18" for now. She seems pretty excited to be doing the thing again!

So that's where we are at the moment. Dealing with some bumps in the road, but I think things will smooth over soon. I'll get to looking for another show to get to. My trainer is only home this coming weekend and the next before heading back to VT for a couple weeks. I'm not sure there's anything too close by the second weekend, so our debut may have to wait a bit longer. But it will happen! Eventually... Lol! 

In other news, I braided 10 manes and 5 tails last week which was exhausting. But also nice to make some extra cash. 

The toilet in my barn is broken. It's one of those up flushing ones like people have in a basement, so it's stupid expensive to repair. My two weeks of braiding will pay for that, so it's nice to at least break even there. Bummer I can't buy anything fun with my hard earned money, but hey, that's adulting amiright?! 

And that's where we are! Bumps, cracks, weirdness, and a broken toilet. Lol! But this shall all pass and then we can get back on track!

What's Up Wednesday

 

What a week! Happy to report that I survived the busy weekend, but will admit at my newly advanced age, I haven't yet caught up on sleep. Boy am I old! Lol. Anyway... Let's start with last Friday. 

I had an appointment scheduled to check on Shiny's swollen leg. The ultra sound showed she had some swelling in the sesamoidean tendon sheath. Fortunately, the tendon itself was not inflamed, just the sheath. And even more fortunately, it wasn't the suspensory. Phew. Since it was only the tendon sheath, doc thought it best to keep going with work. For treatment, we decided to add ice a few times a day and it it's not looking better in a couple weeks, we can put some prostride in it. 

The first day I tried to ice the leg, I used a full sized horse ice boot figuring that doc said the more area I could ice the better.... Well... Shiny had other feelings. I put the boot on in the crossties, which she didn't like, but she dealt with it. I groomed her and put her blanket back on, all while on the cross ties with the ice boot on the leg. My plan was to put her back in the stall with the ice and come back after I rode the next horse. But as soon as I disconnected the first cross tie, she completely lost her shit. She bolted forward, but only so far since she was still attached to the other crosstie. She then kicked VIOLENTLY until the thing flew off. Only then could I get the other cross tie off. Shiny is generally a very well behaved and easy to work around pony. But every once in a while, she's a total spaz. That was one of those times. Needless to say, I have been icing only in short intervals when I can babysit her standing still. I also switched to the smaller boot that she's wearing in the photo above. It never occurred to me not to move her with the ice boot, I walk the big horses around all the time while they're wearing them! Lesson learned. Ponies... Despite all the drama and not being able to ice as long as I'd like at a time, the leg has finally started to come down, and is looking pretty close to normal. 

Also on Friday I had a great lesson with Al. We were inside since it was like a hurricane outdoors. So windy all the jumps had blown over. Al was great with the warm up exercises doing the outside line on the add stride, and then the regular stride, and then back to adding again. He's surprisingly adjustable! Next we moved on to the circle of death. Four jumps (tiny ones, maybe 2' if I'm being generous) set on a circle. You could be fairly direct and do three strides between them, but our instructions were to keep the bend and do four strides between each. I really thought this would be a struggle for Al, but he was all over it and it wasn't too tough at all. What a good toddler horse! To finish we did a fun course. The last two jumps were a roll back from a diagonal oxer to a vertical on the quarter line. There were two jumps on the landing side of the oxer we could go around to get to the vertical, but I saw space enough to go between. The fences weren't big, so I figured I'd give it a shot and Al was all over it! I lost him just a tiny bit heading back to the vertical (I let him bulge out just a little), but we got there okay anyway. I know it wasn't a big deal at all, but for chicken little me, it felt like a victory. This horse really makes me brave, and I felt that little excitement I used to feel when I finished a quick and neat jump off. It's amazing to me how being on the right horse makes all the difference. 

Saturday was the BIG DAY though! Time to move Eros and Shiny home! But first I rode all the horses at the boarding barn. Easier to work them first and then let them get settled at home. Everything went smoothly and I had the horses tucked in at home by 4:30. It feels SO nice to have them home! Now I just have to tackle the mountain of dirty blue blankets they brought back with them. (They wear green at my house.) 

Saturday evening they were having a little party for all the birthdays happening that weekend (me and the barn owner on Saturday, one of the working students was Friday, and another adult boarder was Sunday). So once the ponies were settled and I had a shower, I headed back over for that. It was a lot of fun! I couldn't stay too late though, since I still had horses to braid. (Photos later in this post.)

I finished braiding around 2 am and when I got home the doggos had left me some presents... Not really the kind I would have liked. That wouldn't have been so bad, but Pia was laying on poo. So at 2 am I had to wash the floor AND the dog... And then she proceeded to bark her opinion about me washing her for the rest of the night. Needless to say, I got no sleep. 

Sunday morning I have my other Al lesson. Our regular teacher was at the show I had been braiding at, so the barn manager taught us instead. It was a great lesson, but I was so stupid tired, I didn't end up jumping a whole lot. But we did enough! We were outside, and Al was kind of wild, but in the best way. He was really taking me to the fences, and had a nice HUGE stride! But he was still listening well and I didn't have any trouble getting him to shorten to make the lines. Such a cool dude.

After the lesson I rode Pammon, and then headed home. I went back and forth on whether or not I was going to ride at home, but ultimately I decided to unpack the trailer and just get things re organized. I was so tired from all the late braiding nights and was a little worried they might be spooky and need more than I had to offer that day. I let them have Monday off too because I'm sticking with that as our day off. I might have made a different decision if it was Al and Pammon, but these two can handle a couple vacation days. So yesterday was our first day riding on our own this year!

They both were great both days so far. No shenanigans at all! I'm sure I'll pay for that statement tomorrow though... Lol! I haven't put the jumps back out yet as I'm waiting for the guy to come re level the ring. I think he's coming next week. I'll probably drag one or two out for Eros for the weekend though. Shiny isn't back to jumping just yet, but probably soon. 

Overall, the horses are all going great. They got worked on by the body worker this week, and it made a huge difference in all of them. She had been in Florida for the winter, so they were all really over due. So glad she's back!

In farm news, the day I brought the horses home, something happened to one of the light fixtures. What? I have no idea. I went out to the trailer, and when I came back it was broken. I'm guessing a bird must have flown into it, but I really have no idea. I think I can get a replacement cover for it, I just have to climb back up there to measure which I'm putting off for right now... 

Hard to see, but the clearish plastic part that covers the bulbs
is broken. The green part on the front had come off too, but 
 I was able to snap that back in place. Crazy!

Also, the Gator battery finally gave up on life. I would have sworn we replaced it last year when I had it serviced, but turns out, they just replaced the bolts on it. Oops. So I called the mechanic today to see if they could come out and replace the battery. First they sent the poor dude out with wrong battery. So he was smart, and took the old one with him to hunt down the right one. Comes back with it, puts it in... and nothing. So he puts the charger on it and the Gator starts right up. Yep, you guessed it. They sent him with a bad battery! So off he went again. Third time was the charm, and it's back in business! Phew. Nothing ever is easy, is it? Fortunately, the mechanic was super nice and had a sense of humor about the whole thing. 

Second attempt. I was on Eros when he 
came back the third time.

Braiding this weekend went well. All of the horses had their manes ready for me, which makes things SO much easier. One of my clients has a habit of changing the lists everyday which I find a little stressful, but all worked out in the end. I wound up having four to do Thursday night, just one on Friday, and four on Saturday. They mostly came out good, just the one pony that I can NEVER do a great job on still came out less than perfect. But I think better than I normally can do on him, so I'll take it. Turns out, he and I share a birthday, so I gave him a little charm for his special day. He turned 27! Imagine that? (I know in dressage you can't have braid charms, but we are allowed in the hunters. Which is odd, because usually dressage is a lot more blingy than us hunters!) 

And I think that catches us all up on the week! How was your week and weekend? Do anything fun with your ponies?