What's Up Wednesday

 

I'm not entirely sure what's happening (ahem... global warming... cough) but the weather in New England is downright springlike lately. It's not crazy warm every day, but we've been staying in the forties with a few days in the fifties too. Tomorrow? SIXTIES. It's nuts. I'm scared March is going to start dumping snow or something ridiculous. Hopefully not. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the warmth while it's here. We've even been lucky enough to get a few rides in outdoors. (Al hasn't yet, but E and Shine have.)

Peep Al back there having some play time <3

I've been taking Shiny's workload kind of day by day depending on how she seems to be feeling. I know she's due for some maintenance, and I don't want to push too hard. But backing off completely also is no good for her. So we're plugging along. She felt half decent for her lesson last week and we did end up popping around a couple of low courses. She's not jumping anything higher than 2' and if we're being honest, the fences were probably closer to 18" last week. Which is totally fine. I was just happy she wanted to play! She was actually pretty excited about it, really taking me to the fences, and I had to actually slow her down. If you know Shiny, you know it's very rare I have to use the whoa button. She got to see the body worker Friday and received a good report. She's still showing some signs of discomfort in front, but doc and I both think it's related to her needing some maintenance. Otherwise, she was back to her normal needs and got a positive note on her body condition too. She still could drop a few pounds, but she's not AS overweight. I'll take it. 

Eros has been a perfect boy as always. I was a bit of a potato in our jumping lesson last week, and he just put up with me without running away. So that's a big A+ for him. He got a positive report from the body worker also. Our current loaner saddle, though not a perfect fit, isn't bothering him at all, so that's a relief. Al's new saddle should be here very soon, and our saddle rep is going to bring her entire arsenal of possibilities for Eros to try once that gets here. Hopefully we figure out exactly what he needs. I'd be happiest if she has that unicorn saddle already, but if we have to order, so be it. I'll just be happiest once I don't have to buy anymore saddles for a long while. Anyway... E has had a few days that he's come out a little less than perfectly sound, but works out of it well. I have him on the list to see the vet too in case he's about ready for some maintenance. I'm not really sure that he is. But I'd rather check and not need it rather than wait too long and have him be uncomfortable. He's getting older, so I want to make sure I stay on top of things for him. I can't believe he's 14 this year!

Things are going swimmingly with my boy Al too! I'm kind of waiting for the dragon to re-emerge, but until then, I'm very much enjoying the sweet horse that has taken it's place. I'm sticking to the lunge on Tuesday pre ride, and I didn't need another last week after that. We even had our first lesson in awhile on Friday! I asked for a private so my being afraid of the end of the ring wouldn't waste anyone's time but my own and my teacher's. In an effort to not overwhelm my anxieties, we stayed on the non spooky half of the ring. I got some help with the shoulder in that we've been struggling with and we even popped over a few fences. I'm excited to try again this Friday and hopefully build up to a real course and using more of the arena. We've been flatting on almost the full ring since our lesson, so yay for not being a total weenie? I'm hypothesizing that maybe his poor behavior was linked to his being uncomfortable. It all started in the fall when that quarter crack started to really bother him, and continued on as he struggled with the dermatitis and then the mystery right hind issue. But that could all just be coincidental and the real problem was just the cold weather. Hard telling for sure. I guess we shall see when the temps drop again which Al shows up under saddle. But he definitely gets extra cookies for being the best boy this week!

In other non horse news, I actually socialized this weekend! A friend of mine used to host a Galentine's Brunch every year the Sunday before Valentine's day. But with Covid, it hasn't happened in awhile. This year, she revived the tradition, and it was so nice to see everyone again and eat delicious food.

And that's it from here for this week. Hope things are going okay for all of you too!