What's Up Wednesday

 

I wish I had lots of exciting things to report on! But alas. It's October. Or as I like to call it, "Just Try to Survive Your Rides" season. 

Some call it Autumn I guess too

I believe in being proactive though. So in an effort to make my rides more pleasant, I have changed the jump course to make it... I dunno... safer? Maybe? I realized that the last time I changed the course I set everything on some kind of diagonal line. Which meant that I was always heading toward something scary or directly away from something scary. (According to my idiot horses anyway.) So for this new course, I set more fences on the long sides/quarter lines and less angled at all the monsters. I also made sure that everything could be jumped heading toward the barn, because that makes for the less likely scenario of me being spun off on landing. (That particular piece of PTSD courtesy of my old horse Jasper.) I actually really like the new course and look forward to setting it again next summer when things are safer and I can fully enjoy it. 

You may be wondering why my horses are all so crazy. We all know it's partially due to the neighbor (he's been a real piece of work lately). And the falling temps. But beyond that it varies by equine. Al hates wind, and it's windy every day of late. Eros isn't overly fond of the shadows changing. Now that the sun doesn't get as high in the sky, the ring looks very different to him (he has poor eyesight in one eye). Plus the wind means the shadows MOVE! Yikes! Shiny's actually not crazy at all. She's just excessively ornery. But I think she's due for some vet work. I'm making her wait until we move for the winter though. It's easier to get an appointment over there and it's only a few more weeks anyway. 

Anyway, let's chat about the week in horses! We'll start with the current elephant in the room: Al. 

Al has mildly lost his mind... Not completely, just partially. Hopefully it grows back. His quarter crack has been bothering him again, which means lighter work, and he's just not getting enough stimulation I don't think. But since (as mentioned earlier) I like to be proactive, I've also started him on some ulcer guard. He's just been very anxious and unsettled so it can't hurt to assume it could be ulcers. It's hard to say for sure if it's helping because at the same time I started it, the weather turned better. But whatever the cause, he's slightly less feral the last few days. 

I spoke with my farrier about the crack so he came out Monday. Al was doing great in the bar shoes with pads but right about the three week mark, things went south again. My farrier and I decided we should try him barefoot for a bit and see if Mother Nature will do a better job healing him than we are. When he pulled the shoes off, I was amazed to see that the area that had been floated was already back to even with the rest of his foot. Which is why it was bothering him again. The little bit of extra room from the cut away in the pad wasn't doing enough once the hoof itself had settled back down. So the shoes are off now, and he's still quite sore. I'm not sure how long it will take for that to go away... Farrier is coming back out tomorrow just to make sure there's no infection or anything else going on. So it's super frustrating, but still, I'm confident we'll get through this. Just not sure when. And the timing sucks because I have that bit of angst about the recent unplanned ejection and I can't effectively work through it while my horse is head bobbing lame. And also insane. We're having a moment over here. Looking forward to getting past all of this! In the meantime, he is still adorable. Good thing.

Next, let's talk about lil Shiny! 

Shiny's been... fine? She's not trying to murder me, though she does spend a lot of time staring across the property line at the inconsiderate neighbor. (She dislikes him as much as I do.) But she's been very backed off this week. Really doesn't want to move off the leg and has zero interest in carrying a nice canter. And you know what's zero fun without a nice canter? Jumping! So we haven't done much of that lately. I was planning to pop her over some fences today, but I was feeling rather ambitious when I adjusted the fences and was wishing they were smaller when I discovered what kind of canter we were working with. So I opted out. We're getting some weather tomorrow, so maybe we'll try again Saturday with some smaller jumps. I'm sure Shiny would have been game to bop around, but I really prefer to set ourselves up for success. When I had cantered a couple cross rails and still didn't feel good about jumping around, I decided to listen to that little voice in my head. Tomorrow's another day, and we have nothing we urgently need to accomplish today. I think I put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself to follow a schedule that's really pretty arbitrary in the grand scheme of things. If we're not feeling it, and there's no show happening in two days, why push things? I'm trying to learn to roll with the punches a little better. 

Shiny's looking amazing right now though! Her dapples really come out this time of year, and having been clipped, they're just that more visible. I wish she had all these dapples all year round!

Eros, despite feeling skeptical about the shadows in the ring, has actually been quite a good boy. He tries very hard to trust me that there aren't any horse eating monsters in those shadows. He is a little distracted and sometimes I need to pony kid kick him to get his attention back... but I'll take that over being a whirling dervish any day! 

He's jumped around the old course and the new one (over the weekend and today) and has been very polite to the jumps. I do think he's also looking for a little maintenance work though. I have a four stride line set on the outside right now, and he wasn't getting down it the first couple of tries today. It's set a few feet short, so his stride is obviously not what it usually is. He doesn't feel particularly unsound to me, just a little creaky. Or maybe just too chill? Not sure. Could be the saddle. Could be a lot of things. But it's nice that he's not dragging me around like a torpedo! Whatever it is, I'm not overly worried. After I cantered a few more single fences and put my leg on out of the turn, he walked right down the line in four, not problem. So the step is there. Maybe he just needs more warm up now that it's cooler out. He's been happy and sweet, and just generally his usual self. Not sure what it is about this horse, but he just really brings me so much comfort. I love having him around. 

In doggo news, P is really starting to show her age. Some days are good and some are less good. I can't remember if I mentioned (I'm sure I did) that she had another vestibular episode a couple weekends ago. So she was on antibiotics for that which I think made her feel crummy. She finished them yesterday, so hopefully she'll be a little brighter soon. Rita's doing great though! We've been taking longer walks now that the weather is nicer and the asphalt isn't too hot for her little feet! And also, plenty of snuggles too. She's hilarious. 

And in other news, my photographer friend recommended me to one of her clients for braids for a photo shoot. So I got to do a couple manes and tails this weekend which was nice. The best part about photo shoot braids is that I can put them in during daylight hours! I always feel a little extra pressure to make them more perfect for photos though. I mean, those braids will likely end up hanging in someone's home! Gotta make them perfect! Of course, the manes weren't prepped perfectly, but I did the best I could. The tails came out beautifully though. You can always tell a tail that doesn't get braided much, and they come out so much more beautifully!

That's it from here this week. Just plugging along, waiting for Spring to roll back around!