What's Up Wednesday

 

Well guys, it was a week last week. I already mentioned having my well pump replaced, but I did not mention that I'm still dealing with rust in the water. This is normal and can take awhile, but it just feels horrible seeing my horses' water buckets like this:

It's 100% safe but man. It seems like I don't take care of these animals if you see these buckets. Please don't call the authorities. Fortunately, it's not this bad anymore, and hopefully will be all clear soon.

Eros had THE BEST jump school on Wednesday. I had changed the course Monday, and he just clocked right around like nothing was new. AND all but one of the jumps was set at 2'9". He felt amazing. And took some adorable screen shots:

Shiny, however, was a train wreck and a half! I made the mistake of forgetting to put my spurs back on. Lesson learned there. NEVER try to jump Shiny without spurs. Sheesh. I could not get that lil' nugget up in front of my leg for the life of me. And she was acting like she had never seen any of these jumps before in her life. Oddly enough, the jumps she jumped well, she jumped really cute. 

But the ones she didn't...

Monsters under this one.

Yep, had that rail down

Kids. I can't say she was a bad pony. She wasn't at all. She never said no to anything and she doesn't try anything dirty. But it was just like she had lost her confidence. She would kind of stutter in front of everything the first time and stare down at them. But once she'd jumped everything she went out pretty well and we called it a day.

Thursday was flat day for both of them, and they were good. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was a relatively easy day as it was kind of raining off and on, so we just tried to get it done in between the weather. 

The rain did stop in the afternoon for my lesson with Lil'B! We did all kinds of hard things like figure eights over bending lines. 

We made it through pretty nicely the first time, but then I proceeded to mess it up most of the other times. Oh well. Finally, the trainer stood in the middle to make me bend around her and it all worked out nicely. Sometimes you just need a landmark!

Friday is where things took a disappointing turn. I got on Eros and all seemed fine while we were walking around. But when I picked up the trot he was lame. Like really lame. Shit. The only good news was that it was Friday and most Fridays my lameness vet is in the area. So I sent a text and he said he'd try to fit me in that afternoon. I rode Shiny in between and thankfully, she was just fine. 

The vet arrived around 4, and had me lunge Eros so he could see what I saw. Yep. Lame. We were all hoping abscess but he was negative to the testers. So on to blocking. He did block nearly sound with the first set so we narrowed it down quickly to foot, maybe lower pastern area. Which is good and bad. It's his leg with the weird tendon so that's not ideal. Since we blocked, we couldn't ultra sound, but since we were leaning toward foot, doc shot some x-rays to see if we could see anything. 

They looked great which is good (and bad). So ultimately, we don't really know what's wrong. Hypothesis is that he somehow jammed that weird tendon of his. We decided to inject the coffin and give him this entire week off, then see what I have on Friday. If he's sound, we'll make a plan for riding, and if he's not, we'll have to do more diagnostics. Cross your fingers for us friends!  

As for what happened, we aren't really sure. I'm feeling incredibly guilty, that maybe it's because I put the jumps up a hole. But he was sound the day after our last jumps school, so I'm not sure that's rational. Doc thinks he should have tolerated the slightly bigger jumps just fine. He could have just hurt himself stomping at flies (he's very aggressive about that...) or maybe in turnout. Who knows. For now he's getting his regular turnout in the mornings and hand walking in the afternoon. Hopefully he'll look good on Friday. 

Shiny got to have her second jump day on Saturday. I made a point to flat her longer before we started jumping. I worked a lot on getting her to move forward and come back at the canter in the hopes it would translate to being adjustable once we were jumping. For the most part it was successful and she was so much better than earlier in the week. She was super ridable and seemed to be enjoying herself. Oddly enough, she didn't jump as cute, but I think when she's relaxed, she just doesn't try as hard. 

I'll take relaxed and rideable over a pretty jump any day though. 

I had a nice flat ride on Bellino Sunday and then Sunday Funday with Shiny. But she kind of ruined it. I don't ride B with spurs so I didn't have them on. I figured for a ten minute bareback ride I wouldn't need them for Shiny. But alas... She knew I was unarmed. No spurs, no stick... Little hussy wouldn't canter! WOULD. NOT. I was pony kicking like a really strong child to no avail. So I got off, got Mr. Tappy, and got back on. She smartened right up thankfully, and we had a pretty lovely ride. Despite being in the sidepull, she brought that hind end up under herself, and gave me a lovely shape. My legs were toast after 20 minutes, and we were both happy to wander out in the yard and eat grass after that. Well, she ate the grass. I sat on her and scrolled Insta. 

This week has been uneventful so far (knock on something please...). Eros is hand walking and Shiny is so far being fine. Looking forward to Friday when hopefully Eros will surprise me with a lovely, sound trot!

Did you all have a good week? Horses trying to drive you insane? It is what they do best afterall...