What's up Wednesday

 

Let's see.... we last left off with a crazy heat wave and no rain. Not much has changed with the rain situation. But the heat did break for a few days which was lovely! So we've gotten back to work!

Al's been feeling better and better. He got his hind feet done Saturday and that was the final piece needed to get him back to his old self. We had a lesson last Friday over just a few small fences to work on some things without taxing the foot. He was great and seemed happy to be getting back to work.

This week we lessoned on Tuesday as I mentioned yesterday. The jumps all went back up to 3' which just felt easy and not at all intimidating. Which is really exciting because I'm a weenie. And while I say it felt easy, that doesn't mean everything was perfect. It wasn't. But we learn from mistakes not from being perfect, so I don't mind at all. At one point, I jumped into the bending line a little quiet, and didn't really put my leg back on, so I found the chip spot coming out. Al really doesn't care what kind of a distance you get or if you make a mistake. He does however get a little mad when he himself makes a mistake... You see, when I got us too tight to the oxer, he didn't quite jump across it enough and caught the rail with his hind leg. Normally having a rail is a non thing for Al. He's a pretty laid back dude and stuff just doesn't work him up much. (Unlike his sister who runs away when she has a rail...) But this time, it seemed to catch him by surprise that it he didn't make it across. And he was MAD! How mad?

THIS MAD:

Why yes, I did get left behind... on the flat. Hence the patting at the end.

We came back and fixed it and the rest of the lesson was just lovely! This horse is so fun (and thankfully not that good at bucking)!

We have another lesson planned for Friday, but we'll see how hot it is. We're getting back up to the 90's with high humidity. If it's cloudy it won't be so bad, but if the sun is beating down... Ugh. So we'll play by ear.

Things have been a little inconsistent for Eros. He's still battling mystery hives. I still think it's bugs that's causing them, but I'm also considering that it could be the shavings. No idea for certain though. My last delivery was paper bag shavings, but I still had a few plastic bag ones so we switched to those for him. We'll see if it makes a difference. Despite the lumpiness, we've still been working because they really don't seem to bother him. He doesn't act like they're itchy or anything so that's good. And he hasn't really had them where the saddle goes, so I figure might as well keep him working, at least lightly. That is until Saturday... The farrier came Saturday to trim the barefoot horses, finish Al, and shoe Eros. Everything seemed to go just fine. They always walk the horses up and down the aisle to make sure they look comfortable and whatnot. So all seemed fine. I got on Al, took care of him, and then went to get Eros out to ride.... And he could barely walk. 

Now I'm pretty level headed about things. I realized that this had to be shoeing related and likely was just a hot nail or something similar. But I can't pretend like I didn't have a small panic that he might be foundering. I mean I DID give him some dex... three weeks ago. Lol. Okay, not always reasonable and level headed. ANYWAY, I calmly sent the above video to my farrier and he said he'd be back as soon as he finished up where he was working. (I have the most wonderful farrier in case you were wondering.) He was also a bit perplexed since he had seen the horse walk just fine after shoeing. He slowly pulled each nail to see if one of them was the culprit, but he really didn't react much to them coming out. So our hypothesis is that he just trimmed him a hair too close in the toe. (Eros has kind of shitty feet and he's not an easy horse to shoe. Not behaviorally but because of his foot structure.) He really wasn't reactive to the testers but even with the shoe off he was tender to walk and weight the foot. We decided to pack the foot with Magic Cushion for a few days and see where we get. I may or may not have asked about five times if he thought it was founder. He did not think so. Each time I asked... (Have I mentioned I have the best farrier?) Thankfully, Eros was feeling better by the next day. He enjoyed a few days of vacation with the shoe off. Today we put the shoe back on (without any nails in the toe!) and I got on him. He felt just fine! PHEW. Per Farrier's direction, I'm going to keep packing it for a few more days just to be on the safe side. 

To further make Eros' week miserable, all the horses got their teeth done today, and I chose to make good use of the sedation. He got his sheath cleaned AND his mane pulled. Both things he hates. I've actually never cleaned his nasty sheath because he won't let me near it. So it was GROSS. But I bet it feels a whole lot better now! I won't share inappropriate photos of that, but here's an after photo of his mane. It's still too thick. But it's better than it was.

Things are going well with Pammon this week. Last week we jumped a few crossrails and so this week we added in a gate!

I know. That is not the middle. It's called PRACTICE!

He's been kind of excited about jumping and seems convinced I'm going to grab his face. In his defense, it has happened before. But in MY defense it's only happened when he gets wild. So... we have some things to work on. That's riding though, right?

I'm only jumping him once a week for right now, just to be careful. So it will be a slow build up to courses. There's no real rush. I have reached out to a friend of mine about potentially sending him to her soon to find his next mom. So that's something that could happen sooner than later. I think it's the right thing and the right time. But I always feel a little sad when this time comes. It's hard for me to let go. But I can't keep them all, and having four is making it financially challenging for me to show. And I REALLY want to get back out there. 

You know who I do plan to keep? SHINY! She's been great! I've put a few jumps up to 2' and we've been playing with roll backs and bending lines. She really starts to pay attention and take me to the fences more when the courses are more interesting. I asked her if she wanted to go back to jumping 2'3" and she said maybe. So perhaps in a few weeks we'll build back up to that. See what she thinks. It's Shiny's world, I'm just along for the ride. 

They all had good reports from the vet/dentist. I was worried they'd be a mess because we're pretty late getting to it this year. But none of them were in bad shape, so that was a relief. 

In other news, I braided a lovely horse on Friday.

I don't braid him all that often, but he's one of my favorites. He has an easy mane and is generally a good boy for it too. Plus his mom pays immediately and tips me with hard seltzers. (#favoritecustomer)

The filter mechanism on my pool broke so this heat wave I shan't be floating to cool off sadly.

Ew. 

The new one arrived today, so hopefully my pool dude will get it working soon. Pools are stupid guys. Don't get one. 

Al ate my martingale:

And then he ate it again when I wasn't paying attention and it no longer has a loop at the end. My fault. Pay attention to the child! Thankfully this is not one of our good ones! But it was Jampy's so that's a little sad. 

In happier news, I got Rita's embark results back!

She is basically full on tiny dog. I really expected her to be a Chiweenie, but there is no wiener dog in there anywhere. I am surprised by all the long haired dogs in there though as she has a nice short coat. I also expected her to be a higher percentage of Chihuahua. You just never know! Her health stuff came back mostly good. She only had one marker for something with her liver. It doesn't mean she'll have a problem, just that it's something to watch for. And none of the other many, MANY markers they test for came back positive. So that's great!

P has had some not great things showing up on her bloodwork. So we're investigating that a little. At 16, I just want her as comfortable as possible. If it turns out to be something easily fixed than I'm totally on board! But we're not doing crazy surgeries or anything invasive like that. So keep your fingers crossed that this isn't a real thing and she'll be just fine... 

And that's what's been going on here this week. Some good, some not good. You know, normal life stuff. How things your way? Horses good? Any fun adventures recently?