Amateur at large: What's Up Wednesday

I feel like we keep hitting some road blocks with our schedule so far this summer. I delayed bringing Al home because I wanted the vet to see him. Unfortunately, that meant he would have to move home after a bunch of days off. And then the icing on the wild Al cake was that the air quality here is pretty bad this week. But we're nothing if not persistent, so we're just plugging along trying to do the best we can. That's all you can do really.

Smoke haze. Maybe hard to tell, but this is at 4PM
when it should be much brighter out than this!

Anyway, let's back up! We last left off with my final Al lesson at the boarding barn for the summer in which we jumped a couple of giant verticals and felt very good about ourselves. After that lesson, we had a nice flat day on Thursday, and then the vet was out Friday. Al had some maintenance done for the first time, so he had the weekend and Monday off. Tuesday was moving day. Which would have gone differently if my truck was back, but alas, it is STILL in the shop. So I was reliant on the barn to ship Al home for me. They were shipping off to a big show the same day, so Al had to come home in the morning, rather than the afternoon. I would have preferred to ride at the boarding barn before coming home, but it just didn't work with the schedule. Not the end of the world. I got Al settled in at home, and gave everyone lunch hay, then ran back to the other barn because I had a couple of extra horses to ride. (LUCKY ME!!! Loving getting to sit on so many different horses!) Then I drove back home to ride mine... But upon arrival, I realized I'd left my phone at the other barn, so had to drive back for that... Seriously, it's a miracle I remember to feed myself some days. I'm also lucky the other barn is only 7 miles away. Ha.

Anyway, air quality wasn't terrible yesterday, so I was able to ride everyone. Per my vet's advice, I gave Al a special ace laced cookie prior to our ride. Glad I did, he was all sorts of angsty, but did keep a lid on his emotions. Of course my neighbor decided to mow the lawn while I was on Al. And the most logical time to start the mower was when we were right next to him. Which wouldn't be all that scary, but there's a brush/tree line between us, so you can't see him. Al handled it with only a tiny spook, so I'll call that a win. My plan was to ace him again today, and then free lunge tomorrow and get back to real work, but we'll have to see. Air quality today was in the red, so we wound up having mostly just a nice walk. We trotted lightly a couple laps each way too, just to make sure everything still felt okay after the vet work. All seems good! If the air is bad again tomorrow, we'll probably do the same. Fingers crossed it clears up some, so Albert can have a little gallop. He really needs it.

I popped both Eros and Shiny over some small stuff last Thursday. Nothing too exciting, but I did promise some new media, so here's a couple of photos:

They both look incredibly bored. But I'm holding off on doing much with them until they get their turn with the vet. They've been good though. Shine has been testing her boundaries by being epically lazy lately. But with some begging she usually ends up moving along nicely.

Eros seems uneasy about the heavy air. I don't think he's struggling with it, but I think the fire smell is making him nervous. His vitals are all fine, but his eyes are a little extra wide, and he's doing a lot of staring outside. He and Shiny just tack walked today, which I think was good for them. Neither of them has respiratory problems, but they're both... ahem... a lil' overweight... So best to err on the side of caution.

As for the rest of the week with those two... They wound up having Friday off because I had to work around the vet coming and also I had to pick up my dad and stepmom at the airport. They're home for the summer! Yay! But with their arrival slated for 3pm (airport is 45 minutes away), the vet coming to the other barn at 1:30, and my not being able to ride at my house until after morning turnout... There just wasn't really time. Oh, and I had horses to ride before Al's appointment too. So lots to do, all at the same time for the most part. It doesn't hurt them to have a day off now and then though. They both flatted pretty hard both weekend days to make up for it. No Sunday funday for them! It was cold and drizzly anyway, so might as well work in that weather.

Obviously with the crappy air here, I'm not sure if any of them will jump this week. Time will tell. I have a whole new sympathy for people who regularly experience forest fires in your area. We aren't even having fires anywhere near here, but the air is terrible. I can't imagine how bad it is closer to the source. Scary stuff!

In other news, my stepmom's horses got back on Friday too! You all remember Fefe and Bellino. Al got to meet Fefe Friday morning out in the dry paddocks.