What's Up Wednesday

 

Not a whole lot to report on this week. Things are going well for everyone. Al seems to have recovered from whatever his latest ailment was. (I still think he was being sensitive to that dermatitis he has.) And Eros, too, seems to be feeling better finally. 

I was reluctant to let Eros have a free lunge because he wasn't feeling his best, but he was getting pretty wild, so I finally caved and let him go play on his own. (He turns out in the ring every morning, but he apparently wanted my permission to go play I guess? I don't chase, him, just give a cluck and if he wants to play he does. If he doesn't, I don't force it.) Anyway, he bucked a whole bunch. Like big, back cracking bronco bucks. Which he doesn't do very often. I think he needed to give himself an adjustment because he's felt a lot better ever since. I still want him to see the vet, but I'm feeling less worried than I was before. I'm still not sure when Doc will get out here, but we're on his scheduler's list at least. Al is hanging out at the boarding barn a few more days because I think I can get him seen Friday that way. Fingers crossed. 

We've been watching the Devon livestream together.
E was zero percent impressed by the junior hunters, but I thought they were lovely.

I haven't jumped E yet this week, so no fun new media of him, but we did pop over some of the teeny jumps you saw last week on Saturday and he was great. I'm planning to jump him and Shiny tomorrow though, and I will make sure to have Pivo all charged up!

Shiny hasn't jumped this week yet either. She may tomorrow, but we're being a little cautious as I somehow managed to pinch her skin in our short girth when we were riding with the bareback pad on Sunday. She has a pretty good little rub. The regular girth doesn't sit on it, but I do think the rub hits the girth when she's in motion. I didn't notice further irritation after our light ride today, so hopefully we'll be okay to do more tomorrow. But I don't want her uncomfortable. If anyone knows where I can find a sheepskin short girth in 16" that isn't $200, please shoot me a link!

Okay, I know this photo is confusing. I was trying to show what she does to me every Sunday... You see, I get on in the barn for bareback day. And she has only a side pull on for her bridle remember... And EVERY TIME without fail, she steps down out of the barn with her front feet, and throws her head down to eat the weeds growing between the barn and the ring. It's a decent size step down too, I'd say about six inches, so this is ridiculously awkward. Ponies... 

She also likes to visit with Eros on our way back in from bareback day.

Of course, if he does that to her, she kicks the wall and squeals. I'm telling you. Ponies! She's too much.

Al's been great! I didn't end up doing a weekend lesson as there wasn't anything to fit into and I didn't really want a private. But we did the flat lesson yesterday ( SO MUCH no stirrups!) and our jumping lesson today. I finally braved up and jumped sans draw reins and he felt so good! He only spooked once, so that was a positive too. 

Not one of the big fences,

A couple of the fences were pretty big at the end too, which was really fun. This horse is pretty scopey and I rarely feel him actually try over anything. But today, one of the verticals was pretty tall. I think it was 1.2m, but may have only been 1.15m. I'm a terrible judge. Regardless, I actually felt him give a little effort, and it was very exciting. One of the other adults videoed the last bending line of my last course, so I have a short bit of media. The first two fences were small, but the last one was pretty tall. 

It's amazing to me how different this horse is summer versus winter. I really thought I had ruined him last winter. I could barely ride him, and was mildly terrified for most of our rides. But now, here we are jumping tricky courses over decently sized jumps and it's like the winter never happened. I'm a little nervous he might regress a little when he moves back home, but fingers crossed that doesn't happen. Our other trainer should be home right around the same time he gets back, so we should have help if we need it. He will probably get back early next week. Or maybe this weekend. I have no idea since I still have no truck! Still waiting on that stupid glass. 

In other news, my pool isn't quite open yet, but I have lined up a new crew to get it going and keep it maintained this summer, so fingers crossed that goes more smoothly. While I wait for the new guys to come out (I'm about two weeks out on their list) I have gotten it refilled and poured a bunch of shock in to start clearing it up. Since the pump and filter aren't running yet, it's still gross, but it's significantly less gross than it started!

Current Status...

And I took a half hour on Monday to sit next to and attempt to tan my ghostly legs.

I also got to enjoy my first lobster roll of the season, which is like the biggest holiday I celebrate honestly.

And that's about it from here! How's your week going?

What's Up Wednesday

 

It was a lovely week here, though a bit steamy...

Shiny after literally a 15 minute flat ride. Poor abused pony.

My cousin who lives in Japan was visiting NYC for two reasons. First, his oldest son who goes to boarding school here in the states is looking at colleges. The second reason is that vaccination roll out is pretty terrible in Japan, so he came back for his shot. They were visiting Yale on Thursday, so we planned a visit for that afternoon. It's so nice that travel is getting back up and running so we can see family again! 

The horses got to see their bodyworker on Monday and both got really good reports! Neither had any issues related to saddle fit. 

Eros had his usual stuff, but much improved from the last visit. And our doctor commented on his coat and general condition looking better. I haven't been happy with his topline so we talked about sharing some of Shiny's ration balancer with him to see if that helps. Shiny didn't have much off at all and doc felt that her neck was in much better shape than ever before. So all good news! Yesterday, when I asked her to pick up trot, she actually trotted off straight instead of bulging through her left shoulder. I'm not naive enough to think that will last, but it was lovely to experience at least once!

Otherwise, the horses have had a good week. We haven't been working super hard since we're in the midst of a five day heat wave. Thankfully Friday wasn't too hot though, because both horses earned themselves a lengthy ride. Eros was just being spooky for no good reason, but he did humble up pretty quickly. He's no dummy. Shiny on the other hand... We had a back to basics sort of ride. All I wanted from her was a circle in each corner at the trot. And she could NOT get it done. You guys. It took us an hour to get to a decent stopping point. AN HOUR. Of trotting circles. It was exhausting. Ponies. She did end in a good place though, and I really think the lesson stuck with her as she was jumping a lot better the next day. Both horses had a short and sweet jump school Saturday. Both were pretty good. Eros even got to jump a 2'6" vertical! Moving on up! (Shiny did the 2'3" oxer! Mountains! We're jumping mountains! Or maybe ant hills. Whatever.)

2'6"! There are actual divisions we could show at this height!

2'3"! And I'm happy to report it was easy for her from both the
good spot and the tight one. So 2'6" will likely be in her future.

Since both horses are going nicely over fences for the time being, I figured it was time we start re introducing related distances. Thus, Monday I moved all the jumps around for a new course. 

We won't start playing with it until Thursday this week though, as they are getting their feet done today. Plus the heat. Tomorrow should be cooler. I set up mostly single fences again, but also a four stride line on the outside. I set it for the horse stride, and Shiny can do the add. Also, for the first session, I set the jumps super low so we can trot in and canter out to get started. I just want everything to be unexciting and easy as we move along. I'm all about minimizing my own anxiety and setting us all up for success. So far it's been working so hopefully it will keep on!

Sunday was a funday in which we did a 15 minute bareback/sidepull walk and then went out for snackies in the side yard. 

despite having delicious grass available, Eros prefers to
eat as close to the barn as possible. Which is mostly weeds. 
Weirdo.

Pammon is acclimating well out in his field with his buddy. Though he is being a little pushy with his friend. The first day they were thick as thieves:

But ever since then Pammon chases his friend away when I come to visit. And his friend quickly leaves, so I do think Pammon is being a little bit of a jerk. His friend doesn't have any marks on him or anything, so I don't think anyone is getting hurt, but it does make me sad they aren't best friends. They both seem happy enough in general though, so maybe it's just me that it bothers. Am I THAT mom now? Pammon's buddy has stood up for himself at least, as evidenced by this bitey face mark on Pammon:

I'm confident he asked for that. Lol!

I did braid one pony last weekend, so I am sort of earning my keep around here:

And I have a bunch for this weekend coming up. Definitely glad this side gig is a thing! There is a pretty serious braider shortage around the country so if I really needed I can pick up a lot of work. Most of it isn't local though which is tough with the farm. Nice to have the option though! 

The most exciting part of the week though?? 

The Snack Shack is open for the season! The first day I went though, I was told they were struggling to find lobster and didn't have any. Can you believe it?! No lobster? Fortunately, he sent me a text on Saturday that they were back in lobster roll business. THANK GOODNESS! All is right in my world once more. 

 

And lastly, I finally found a pool company that would both answer their phone and are available to open/service my pool. So after two years of being closed, it is scheduled to open today. It will take a few visits to get it useable I'm sure. Assuming everything is in working order... But I'm excited to get it going again. It's long past time as shown by the eco system living on the cover right now:

Did you all have a good week? How's the weather where you are? (Not you TX, I know you're soggy!)

What's Up Wednesday!

The weeks are somehow flying by and also really long somehow. Time is a funny thing, isn't it? I'm pretty sad that summer is ending though. Boo. That said, it was still nice to have a three day weekend. And it was BUSY!

So Eros felt... not great when I rode him last Thursday. His feet get kind of brittle this time of year, so my farrier lets his toe get a little long to give him someplace to nail. But when his toe gets long that ankle of his gets sore and it's kind of a vicious cycle. He's on the list to see the vet anyway though, as I think he needs some maintenance. Body worker is coming soon too, yay! Hopefully we'll get him all patched up and ready to roll in the next few weeks.
Friday turned out to be one of those days where nothing goes how you thought it would. I was supposed to have a 6:15 lesson after work, but trainer forgot. So I wasted a lot of time waiting for her, before I finally sent a text. It wasn't a big deal, but the day got late by the time I finally got on. I wound up just riding Pammon and giving Shiny and Rio quick grooms and extra cookies.

Saturday some friends and I had tickets to see the Yankees play an afternoon game. I had figured we'd leave around 10 am giving plenty of time to flat Eros before we left. I wanted to see how he felt so I could decide about my lesson on Sunday. But you all know how best laid plans go, yes?
My friends wanted to be on the 7:20 AM train to the stadium. It was a giveaway day, but only to the first 20,000 people. Last time we missed out. So they wanted to arrive early. UGH. I couldn't not ride in the morning though. Firstly because I wanted to see if he was sound. But also, if he WAS sound, he needed to get ridden the day before he jumps, and stepmom was out of town for the weekend. So I asked if it would be okay if I came out stupid early to ride. That is one of the super nice things about the boarding barn. They seem to be pretty flexible about stuff like that. I got the okay, so Saturday morning I was up at 3:30 am to go ride.
Know how early that is?

It's so early I rode and put him away before the sun was up. He's been spending his nights outside, so I had to go find him via iphone flashlight in the paddock. Lol. Good thing they go out individually and I didn't have to herd him away from any buddies! I knew they'd be getting there to bring in and feed soon after I left, so I tucked him back in his stall when I was done riding.
Anyway, he felt better for this ride, so I decided to keep the lesson. I had tried to video some with my phone so I could see what he looked like, but I turned it the wrong way and you really couldn't see much. Oops. It was a good thought anyway.
The sun finally started coming up when I was leaving, and it was a really beautiful sunrise. There are benefits to early mornings!

Next I headed home to grab a shower and let the dogs out. Did that, fed the horses and got their meals ready for the rest of the day for the horse sitter. And I was ready to leave by 6:30 am! Seriously, someone should have rewarded me for that. I was impressed with me!

We were there super early (as planned I guess) and had to stand in line forever. But we got our free shirts (seriously, not so sure they were worth a 3:15 am wake up, but I hate to be the stick in the mud) and we walked around for a bit before having some lunch. Loved these giant bobble heads:

The game was really fun! It was a close one the whole way through, and the Yankees pulled off a win in extra innings. (Yep, it was a LONG game!)

I was pretty excited when I finally got home to snuggle the pugs for awhile and get to bed early. Even though most of the day was spent sitting on my butt eating snacks and watching baseball, I was exhausted!

Sunday morning I was somewhat refreshed since I had gone to bed early. I was at the barn by 9 for my 9:30 lesson. Unfortunately, as we were warming up, I could tell Eros was feeling sore again, so I wound up just spectating. I was disappointed to miss out on jumping after last weeks lesson had gone so well. But that's horses! It was still fun to watch my friends jump around.

Eros was happy to vacuum the aisle

 I got to ride my buddy Vino on Sunday too. Last time I rode him was that stupid hot weekend when we hid in the indoor to stay cooler. So this time it was nice to get outside with him. He was less lazy than indoors which was lovely.

I forgot to take any photos when he was out of his stall... but here he begging for cookies!

And then it was home for more riding and some hand grazing. I had some interesting rides... Pammon was a little fresh. And the people on the other side of the woods from us must have been doing some yard work. At one point a branch or something fell and I got a little run away with. I decided when he continued to spook at nothing that I should throw him on a lunge line. Glad I did! He was WILD. Galloping and bucking for a full twenty minutes. I eventually got back on and tried to end on a good note, but he never fully settled. I could tell he was physically tired, but the hamsters must have still been spinning that wheel. Sometimes you just have to know when to finish and come back and try again.
He still got to have some snacks in the yard. He was never truly bad (he's not a bad guy, ever) but he just was angsty and unfocused. We all have those days.

Pretty focused here though...

Shiny has been a little cranky lately. I'm guessing she's in season? I don't know. Mares! She hasn't been terrible by any means, just has lots of opinions she enjoys sharing with me. She got snacks too though.

Rio skipped right to the snacks after a good grooming.

I love his chewing face <3

I got done just in time to make it to the lake for the last concert of the season (waaahhhhh)!

Fortunately, they will be open a few more weeks so I still have some more lobster rolls to consume.

Thank goodness. I'm not ready to give these up.

Monday was another early morning since my helper had the day off. I had to be done with chores by 12:30 ish because my lesson was rescheduled for around that time. The kids all enjoyed their turnouts and took turns between the walkouts and the ring.

Rio strolling

Rio begging

Rio eating...

Shiny eating

Pammon playing with the treat ball (he LOVES it!)

Pammon begging

Shiny begging

It was a lovely morning! And my lesson went well too for the most part. I wrote about it yesterday already, so just flip back a page to catch up! In summary, I still suffer from #ammyangst (maybe I just made some shirts with that on them over at tee spring) but we're working through it!
Shiny's ride was delayed a few minutes as we waited for a rain shower to pass, but once we got out there she was pretty good. Not as grumpy as she has been, but still just a bit. Once she warmed up though, she was more willing to do some work. Maybe the weather changes are hard on her. I dunno. Ponies...
I got done with everyone just in time to feed dinner and then hunt some down for myself (grocery store subs for the win!). I honestly don't know where the hours go. The barn vortex is a real thing you guys!
Next thing I knew, I was back in the office. Sheesh. Work has settled down for now as they decided to postpone some of these awful changes that are coming. So it will get awful again come the first of the year, but for now life is more or less back to normal. I'm not sure if delaying the inevitable is really better, but I'll take it for the time being.
The horses have been good so far this week. It's supposed to storm pretty hard this evening, so I'll probably go sit on Eros and see how he feels. My luck he'll be perfectly fine by Friday for the vet... Lol. Hopefully not. I mean, I want him sound, but I want to fix what's wrong too!
That's about it from here... The only other thing I did last week was fix the broken fence post with Gorilla Glue and duct tape. So far it's holding!

How was your week/weekend? Do anything fun for the holiday? Go to some shows or lessons? Tell me about it in the comments!

What's Up Wednesday: Laminitis & Lobster Rolls

Life's been carrying on around here, despite all the not riding in my life. It was a lovely three day weekend. We had one rainy day, but the other two were nice enough. I had a couple highlights, the first of which was probably this:

Fear not, more fries were coming!

My first lobster roll of the season at the lake! I'm SO HAPPY that lake season has arrived. Mostly for the lobster rolls since I don't really use the lake itself much. I had this bad boy on Saturday evening, but I may or may not have gotten a grilled cheese and more fries there on Sunday.

I didn't really make any plans for the long weekend, and it was nice to actually get stuff done at home. I put a few new bracelets together:

Got some basil started from seeds:

And finally fixed the tail gate on the Gator!

 Though the pieces of hose they gave me for stoppers were way too small. I got creative with Gorilla tape though. Hey, it works!

Saturday was pretty hot.

I checked in with the vet to find out if Jampy's feet could get wet. He said it was fine, so both boys had much needed soapy baths. That was pretty much the highlight of their day. I think Jamp's just happy whenever I take him out of his stall these days. Even if it's for a bath. I tried out some new bath mitts that I got from Riding Warehouse which I half liked and half didn't.

I did Rio first, and rather liked the mitts. I didn't have any water running down my arms which was nice. I'm starting to really prefer grooming tools that work like gloves because you can get into all the nooks and crannies. The only complaint I had was the one I used on Jampy was shedding all over him. It rinsed off, but I didn't really like the shedding. I didn't notice it on Rio, so maybe it was just a bad glove? Hard to say. I'll still be using them again but so I guess it's not a deal breaker yet.
Sunday was rainy and not hot.

 I was able to get the boys out for their walks in between the rain though, so that was nice for everyone.
But the BEST part of my weekend came on Monday. I got to RIDE! My awesome friend Katie (as I mentioned yesterday) offered to share her horse Bradley with me. She's going to be traveling some, and said she'd love it if I could ride him while she's away. Works out great for both of us, but mostly for me because I REALLY miss being in the saddle. I thought it was a bummer the last couple of years not being able to show, but as it turns out, not riding at all is a whole lot harder. We decided to meet up Monday so I could ride him with her there the first time. That way I could find all her stuff, and make sure I'm doing things the way she likes with her horse.
Bradley is a 17.3 hand Danish Warmblood. It's quite a stretch for me to get his saddle on! And you know... get on. But once you're up there, he doesn't feel THAT big. He's definitely long, but he's not overly round, so I can get my leg around him kind of.
You guys. I had SO MUCH FUN! I had a little bit of a tough time with my asthma so had to take a few walk breaks, and it wasn't a very long ride. But it was amazing in every way. PLUS, Katie took a bunch of photos.

 AND she even let me pop over some cross rails!

Well actually she said I could jump whatever I want. She shows Bradley in the high adult jumpers and he's definitely scopey enough for more. But as I haven't been on a horse in almost a month and haven't jumped really since last fall, I opted to stick to the cross rails for now. Another time we'll jump bigger though. I'm ridiculously sore from that little ride, and loving every ache of it.

Yesterday I was finally able to get the vet out to do x-rays for Jampy. The news was ok. Not exactly what I had hoped for, but not terrible news either.

He unfortunately did both rotate and drop some. The right foot has about a 10% rotation and the left about a 7%. The good news is, he has more than adequate sole depth left, and the rotation is pretty minor. As long as we keep it from progressing any further, he should be able to get back to more or less a normal life after this. As in, I'll be able to ride him again and he'll be able to have turnout. He'll have the same boring diet forever though. Sorry buddy. On the bright side, I was told he could eat celery, and he loves it!

At least for now. He loved peanuts the first time too, and then changed his mind.
He is not quite done with this episode yet though, which is not the best news. So we have to keep up with the Banamine and the icing for a while longer. My vet is feeling very positive with how he's walking though, and thinks we're on the right path. More waiting until we're out of the woods, but I think we're approaching the edge of the forest at least.

That's what's up this Wednesday! What's up with you? How are your horses doing? Any shows coming up? Do any fun things for the long weekend?