What's Up Wednesday

 

The big news around here is that Rita is home! She came home with me on Sunday from the barn, though we did hit a small bump in the road when she wouldn't let me catch her to get in the car!

She was feeling a little insecure as her foster parents had said goodbye to her, but I had one more horse to ride so she had to wait for me by herself in the barn lounge. Once I did finally catch her, everything went just fine! She and P aren't really BFFs yet, but they aren't fighting. I'm sure in time they'll come around to one another. She's settling in well, though we have some work to do on potty training. I put down wee-wee pads, but she prefers to go next to them instead of on them. She had a few accidents at her foster house, but not frequent ones, so hopefully once she's feeling more settled here this will improve. And if not? Well, I'll get her some diapers I guess. We'll work it out! Otherwise, things are going pretty well. She loves to snuggle:

And also really likes toys. She's content to just chew on them, but also is pretty good at fetch! So we've been having fun with that. I wish the weather was better because I know she enjoys walks, but it's pretty cold here and she doesn't have much hair. House fetch will have to do for workouts right now. 

Ponies are all doing fairly well. I apparently have to re-earn Shiny's love after leaving for a week and making her have training rides. She had MANY opinions on Sunday when I rode her. She's starting to come back around though and we had a nice ride yesterday and today. I think her neck is still feeling sore, but definitely improved from when a couple weeks ago. I think she'll be just fine soon. Hopefully at least! She'll have a recheck sometime this month. 

Eros, in normal Eros fashion, has been feeling a little off on his bad foot since I got home. This happens literally every time I go away and let anyone else ride him. I don't think it's at all from getting bad rides. I know that didn't happen! But maybe just from his routine being different. He warms up pretty slowly, and my guess he wasn't given as much warm time as he might like. But also, I think the cold weather probably bothers that leg of his too. He felt better today than he did yesterday (it's 20 degrees warmer), so hopefully he'll be feeling better soon too. I'm skipping his lesson this week though, just to be safe. He is also on the vet list this month, so maybe doc will have some ideas on how to keep him more comfortable. Last time Doc was out, he recommended the Sure Foot hoof pads for Eros. (L talked about them on her blog once awhile back, but her blog seems to be hiding at the moment so I can't link back. Hopefully she'll read this and drop a link in the comments to her post!) I did order them, but they were on back order. I have since received two of the three density levels, but not the one I'm supposed to start with. So we have to wait to start using those. Anyway, I'm not terribly worried about him. His legs are tight, and this is pretty consistent with previous winters for him. 

Caught Pammon having a snooze... 
And by snooze, I mean laying down eating his hay. 

All is as it was with Pammon. We're still walking 30 minutes every day. He'll get a recheck too when doc comes and I'm hopeful we will get to add some trotting into our rides soon. I'm so happy to be sitting on him again, but it would be nice to break up some of that 30 minutes with a little trot work.

Al's got jokes already.

Al is amazing guys. I gave him a light ride on Sunday since I hadn't ridden in over a week and had four of them to survive. He was a good boy as per the norm. But Tuesday, when I went to get him out of his stall, I discovered he was missing a shoe. He tried to pretend he doesn't wear one on that foot, but I know better. Found the shoe, and my farrier was able to tack it back on his way home that evening. I hopped on him today, a little concerned I might die after he had two days off. But I needn't have worried. He started out a little quick, but settled right in and we had a really great ride. I even managed to get him round for several consecutive laps of the ring. Which is a feat for me right now. (Lil' victories my friends.) We skipped the flat lesson this week for a bunch of reasons that are probably just me making excuses, but we have our jumping lesson tomorrow!

And in vacation news, you guys already read the less than ideal end to the trip. But the trip itself was pretty wonderful! My dad had his boat docked at the Atlantis Marina in the Bahamas. We had access to the water park, pools, beaches, etc being docked there, though for the most part we played with the boats. We had a chef for the week as part of our boat crew so meals were prepared on board, and we ate outside each meal thanks to the lovely weather. After breakfast, my step mom took the peddle kayak out for her workout, and my dad would follow behind her with the dinghy. Some mornings I joined him.

And then most afternoons we took the tender out for swimming and snorkeling in the ocean. So I got some sun, did some swimming (okay, mostly floating), and read a book! Oh, and I did take one trip down the tube water slide (NOT the vertical drop one!). It was a great week. For New Year's we had an extra delicious dinner on the boat, then watched "Don't Look Up" and I was in bed when I saw the ball drop. If I was a less lazy person, I'd have gone back up because there was a pretty fabulous fireworks show. And all the boats blew their horns at midnight which was kind of a fun thing. Probably less so for people trying to sleep... but I was up!

And now you're all caught up! Did you all have a nice New Years?