What's Up Wednesday

 

What a week! Phew. Last week the horses had their body worker out Wednesday, which I've probably already mentioned. Everyone was in pretty good shape. They had their usual areas that needed adjusting, but everyone adjusted really easily and all got good reports. She was especially complimentary of Pammon's condition so that was exciting!

Friday my vet was once again scheduled to come out for Eros' hocks and to check out Shiny's leg. I rode the other two horses first, and then was waiting for the vet. Around five I sent a text to get an eta. I wasn't sure if I should feed or not. No response. So I fed. I sent another at 5:30. At 6 I asked if I should assume he's not coming. Still no answer. At 7 he told me it went too long at the other barn and he wasn't going to make it. I was not happy. Not at all. I mean, we've been waiting since March essentially. Tuesday morning I called his office to get rescheduled and was told he couldn't come until July. JULY! I was like, nope, that won't work for me. So I fumed about it all day, mulling over which other vet I should switch to. I really REALLY didn't want to switch. My vet knows every inch of these horses. And Eros is a special case with his issues. But if I can't get them the care they need more or less when they need it, maybe it's time for a change. BUT! I got a text around 2:30 that same day that doc was getting done early and could swing by if I was able. I was all YES PLEASE COME!!!! So thankfully, I finally got Eros taken care of (we did hocks and SI this time, and some shockwave on his back). 

He watched Shiny go and palpated on the leg, and said he thinks she's in pretty good shape. He thinks the kicking out for the right lead canter is probably SI related. I still have alpha-2 in my freezer for her, so we're going to schedule an appointment in early July to do that for her and maybe her hocks again. The great thing about the Alpha-2 is that it's not like putting steroid in there and you can do it however often they need it. It's not limited like steroid injections, and it poses much less risk of infection. The down side is that it doesn't always last as long as the steroids. Anyway, I digress... Doc was really happy with how she's moving and said she looks the best he's seen her ever. So that was nice to hear! As for the leg, he thinks it's good to go. So she can start popping some little jumps. Yay! I'm not sure if I'll start now or wait until after her next appointment. Maybe just some teeny ones now. We'll see. 

We also chatted about Pammon. Doc said if he's feeling fit, we can start some cavalletti, but he also thinks doing some small cross rail bounces would be especially good for him. Exercises that require him to fire that hind end are what's going to get his back strong. So I'm excited to start that! I'm not starting just yet though. I've still been using a small amount of sedation, so I need to ween him off that. I don't want to jump with him impaired. Seems dangerous. He's settled in much better at this point, so I think he's about ready. Probably by next week he'll be clean and sober. 

I didn't have any Al questions this time, but I showed doc our video from our last lesson at the boarding barn, and he was just as excited as I was about it. THIS is why I want to keep my vet. He's been there since the Rio days (before even!) and he celebrates the victories with me. And he's been through all of the losses too. So much history. Hopefully moving forward we won't have such trouble scheduling. 

It was a pretty long day... I got on Al in the morning, but the neighbor started weed eating along the tree line and Al was having a hard time with that. After 20 minutes, I decided to hop off and wait until the neighbor finished and try again. Al was great the second time. Then I rode Eros, and when he was done I got the text that the vet could come. So I got on Pammon. Vet wasn't there yet, and it was 4:30 so I was like, you know, I better just ride Shiny just in case he cancels again. Which means, I also rode Eros and Shiny twice that day. I rode SEVEN times on Tuesday! I mean, three of them were short (Al's first ride, and the two for the vet) but still. That's a lot of saddle time in one day. I didn't get in from the barn until 9:30 last night. So nice having the barn right here at home on nights like that!

As for how working the horses went this past week... Al jumped a couple of times. I try to pop over some fences twice a week. He was his perfect self both days! The first day we got a lot of rain earlier so the one end was a little squishy. I kept the fences and just worked over the few at the dry end. The second day the footing was perfect and were able to do some courses. I even put some fences up around 2'9"-3". I don't plan to jump much bigger than 3' on my own. Going to work on scheduling some lesson soon and we can jump bigger when trainer is around. 

Anyway, Al is still great! He's been a little tricky to motivate on the flat. Similar to how he was over the winter. I do think he prefers a larger ring to get him moving forward. But we only have what we have, so we'll just have to figure it out!

Eros only wound up jumping once this past week. Friday I didn't end up riding since we were waiting for the vet and then it was so late. Since I don't like to jump after a day off, he missed out on a second school. But honestly, that's fine since he was still awaiting his care. He was great the day we did jump though!

Shiny and Pammon both just kind of plugged along with the same old, same old. I'm excited to start doing more with both of them! 

In other news, my dad and stepmom are back from Florida! They stopped over this weekend with my birthday present. While it wasn't the Bemer blanket I was hoping for. (hahaha, I know, that would be an insane b-day gift. But a girl can hope!) it was almost just as awesome:

A vacuum! I'm so excited! Especially for days when Eros comes in looking like this:

He managed that with his fly sheet... So gross.

I spent Monday giving my saddles some much needed attention. They all needed oil pretty desperately, and I really have been terrible about cleaning them too. So bad. Here's how thirsty Pammon's saddle was:

Left is before, right is after oiling

And here are most of them looking happy:

And that's about it from here! Everyone is doing well! The doggos both have check ups this week, so that's a lot of veterinary stuff for one week... but hopefully we'll be done for awhile after this!

Did you all have a good week? Do anything fun and exciting?