What's up Wednesday

 

The smoke cleared out for the weekend which was a relief! Al was able to have his much needed free lunge, and thankfully, his brain was reinstalled after that. Phew. I was worried winter Al was here to stay. He did make a second appearance yesterday, briefly, but summer Al turned back up today. 

I forget which day, I think Friday? But all three horses popped over a few fences at some point. I didn't set up Pivo because I was feeling epically lazy. Sorry. It happens! The fences were all tiny and it was completely uneventful, so you didn't miss anything, I promise!

Saturday was a big rush because I had plans to go to polo in the late afternoon. The match was up in Newport, which I thought was an hour drive, but turns out, it's an hour and a half, and I was pretty late to arrive... Oops. I couldn't really have left earlier though since I had to feed the ponies. I made it in time for divot stomping though! And for the second half. 

We weren't clear on if this was a scrimmage or who was actually the home team... It was Bentley vs Rolls Royce and I have no idea which team was Newport's. Or if they both were and it was just a money maker for the sponsors? I have no idea. Either way, it was fun, even if I had no idea who to root for!

Good game, good game, good game...

It was a little rainy, but we were rewarded for staying with a pretty rainbow over the scoreboard:

Sunday was Sunday Funday in which everyone participated to some extent, but Al's grazing was done in hand. I'm not sure I trust him in the side pull just yet. 

Yesterday, Al was a bit out of sorts. He can get that way after a day off sometimes (we don't ride on Mondays) but I think the real catalyst this time was that the state was doing tree work on my road and they had the chipper right in front of the barn. It was really loud, but the horses couldn't really see it. Just hear it. The other two didn't care much, but Al was a little undone. I offered him a free lunge before riding, which he played a little bit, but he wasn't that into it. So I got on. He was a doofus. Scared of one entire long side of the ring. Also scared of a corner on the other side... We worked through it, but he never really go over any of it. We were both pretty exhausted by the end, and I was hopeful he would have forgotten about all of it for today. And he had. Thankfully! Such a weirdo. 

We have a hypothesis about this behavior though. I think I've mentioned before that the hay at the boarding barn this winter was REALLY good. Like amazing hay. Which is terrible for most of my horses because the two are so fat, and the third is... well... he's Al. What does that have to do with Al's behavior yesterday? Well... last fall, the barn was low on hay, so they borrowed 20 bales from me and replaced them when they're shipment arrived. Which was the really good stuff. Guess which bales we fed Monday and Tuesday? Yep. That's right. So we're going to have to wait and see if it happens again the next time we feed one of those bales. If it does, I can upgrade our hypothesis to a working theory. First cut crappy hay for all at my barn! Ha! Poor kids. 

Anyway, since Al brought his brain out to ride today, I let him pop over a few small fences. We're waiting for supervision to jump the big ones! Trainer is back from Florida, so we just have to set up a time. Hopefully this weekend! Anyway, Al thought the tiny jumps were a big snooze. Which I guess is good? He did wear his ears for the baby oxer though. Miracles do happen!

He put his ears up, but he literally cantered over the fence. 

Eros has been feeling pretty good. I can still feel a little something on the turns sometimes, but I noticed that his clubby foot is looking very tall all of a sudden. I think what I'm feeling is a need for the farrier. He's in Traverse City this week, but will stop over when he gets back. The horses are only at four weeks, so Eros is not really due, but I think we need that foot fixed up. We also finally have the vet coming Friday so he can confirm that for me. Or figure out what else it might be. Since he feels pretty good though, I've been working him like normal. He's had a lot of opinions about using himself properly, but once he decides it's easier than arguing he feels pretty great! I let him pop some jumps today too. He was great, though the turbo thrusters came on just once when I went down the outside line. I asked him to move up a little to the first fence and he was like, "YES! LET'S GO!!!!!" The line is set a little short though, so the exuberance was short lived. Thankfully.

This was out of the line. That's me laughing at him.

He seems to have adopted Al's bored ears. 
But I will tell you, he was not bored.
He jumped me so loose over this tiny oxer
that for a brief moment, we were not touching.

Shiny is currently in a little bit of boot camp. We've tried jumping a couple of times these last few weeks, but she is really behind my leg. Despite all kinds of attempts on my part to get her moving off it. I do think she needs another shockwave treatment (happening Friday!) but I also think she's just being a little persnickety. She's been a little spooky, so some of the issue may be that she needs to run around a little. It's counterintuitive, but the more Shiny sucks back off my leg, the more wild she is. Makes no sense to me, but I appreciate her reacting that way and not dumping me. Still though. We've had some serious conversations this week about leg meaning go. I'd love to say she's improving, but she is not. Until the vet sees her, I don't want to push TOO hard in case something is actually wrong. But my hunch is more attitude than discomfort. Anyway, as a result of being a snarky pony, I am withholding real jumps from her. If she can't move off my leg, how will we meet a good distance? And will we make it over? Until we get this worked out, she's limited to under 2'. 

We both look pretty annoyed here.

I keep getting really excited to get photos of all the horses over the puppy jump because I think it's so cute. But it's so small they all think it's stupid. I need to figure out how to make it work with the stacker stands so I can make it bigger. The problem is, the fill is really short. So if I make the fence bigger it gets very airy. With the stackers, you can only use one rail if you want to be able to jump it both directions. If you turn the stackers, you can use more rails, but then it's unsafe to jump in one direction for two reasons. First, the rails will be locked in that way, and then also it will be kind of ramped. So only good for going one way. I like to be able to jump everything both directions since I only have five jumps at the moment. First world problems. Ha. Anyway...

That about catches us all up! How are your horses? Doing fun things??