What's Up Wednesday

 

Phew. It's been a busy week here. It's like summer showed up and so did my social life apparently? Which is great, but I am TIRED! It's a good tired though. Anyway, let's talk about horses!

The vet was out Friday for Eros and Shiny which I have been looking forward to. Turns out, we think Eros' issue was mostly due to his feet. Doc watched him go and then flexed him. He noted that while E is starting out unsound, once he canters, it all but disappears. He did see the little bit of not quite rightness that I was feeling even after cantering, but felt it was because of where his feet were. He has one more upright foot and one foot that has a low heel. He's always been this way. But this cycle for some reason that upright foot grew sort of a lot, and it mostly grew straight up. Meanwhile, the low heel foot grew out. So his right leg was about a full inch taller than the left one. As luck would have it, my farrier came out the next day to fix him up. Unfortunately, he found a little white line happening. 

We think we caught it early so hopefully we'll have it under control asap. He didn't want to dig too much until we get an x-ray, but he dug out what he was comfortable with and packed it with some medication. Eros wears pads (which is why neither the vet nor I had any idea about this issue) so the medication should work it's magic. With his feet evened out, he's feeling much better already. I even let him jump a few fences today. 

He was perfect as usual. We were a little off schedule this week because Sunday I didn't have time to ride the horses at home, due to Father's Day commitments. And while I COULD have ridden Monday, I had a lot of things to get done that day. So I elected to let everyone have a free lunge instead. Eros really needed it. And he showed me his big trot because that's his favorite thing to do.

He really is that uphill. When I ask for canter, sometimes I slide back in my saddle.

Al's been... mostly good. He still is feeling rather spooky here at the house, but for the most part, he's at least spooking in a straight trajectory. I much prefer that. I think he just needs to jump more. I don't love jumping him by myself so I've popped over a few things here or there, but was waiting for my trainer to come out. She was here today, and it was an okay lesson. At my request, we kept the fences small. We haven't done a lot lately, and I've been struggling a bit to get him in front of my leg. It's a lot harder in my small ring than it was at the boarding barn with their enormous arena. Plus, when he's feeling spooky, he also gets sulky to my leg. It's the only time I have any inkling he was a stallion for most of his life. Anyway, we worked through his feelings pretty well, and by the end I felt like I had a lot more of his attention than we started with. I'll call it a win. We're going to try to do another lesson this weekend so I'm hopeful we can jump a little bigger next time. Weather is looking iffy though. We'll have to see how it goes. 

The ears are still the same. In case you were curious.

I think we'll get back into a groove soon enough, and now that the truck is back, I'm hoping to get him to a one day show soon. I think we're ready to get out there. My plan for now is to start really small. Like a .8m or something and just see what it's like. If it's easy and all goes well, then we can try the low adult division which is around 1 meter. He's honestly easier the bigger the jumps get. My goal for this year is to do a few small shows in the lows. And then maybe next year move up to the highs. We've jumped plenty of 1.10-1.15 courses already in lessons, so I'm not concerned about the height. My biggest concern is if I'll be successful at keeping his attention. Which is why I want to start small. So I can focus on riding and not on the fence height. I'm all about setting up for success! 

Shiny saw the vet Friday also. We did a shockwave treatment which always helps her a ton. But otherwise, doc thinks the problems we're having/seeing are likely due to her weight. Her bloodwork hasn't been great, related to her size... And obviously carrying all those extra pounds around is hard on the joints. 

She is a full figured lady at the moment.

So he increased her Thyro-L and prescribed her twice daily rides. Well really he said I should get a treadmill, but that's not really a possibility for me, so we're doing a second ride per day. She is 0% happy about that, I can assure you. She's been a good sport though. And I try to do different things in each ride. Like the first one we usually do some real flatwork with collection and extensions, lots of circles, maybe some lateral work. The second ride we focus more on just going forward. I let her have her head and pretty much just have her moving forward and getting that heart rate up. She seems to enjoy those kinds of rides. 

My trainers daughter did Shiny's first ride for me today, and I'm so proud of them both! Last year, she could barely get Shine to do anything, and REALLY struggled with getting the canter. I think she only did it once and then got bucked off... So yeah. That wasn't ideal. But kiddo has been riding a lot this winter and even has a lease pony of her own now. So she's much stronger, and understands how to ask for things more effectively. (Her pony is still in Florida for a couple more weeks, so she was very excited to ride Shiny, and they will hopefully do a few more rides before her pony arrives. Anyway, she had Shiny trotting and cantering right around the ring, and even popped her over some teeny jumps. She had a couple of drive-bys, but to be fair, the little things she was popping over didn't have standards. Shiny didn't run out or anything, she just casually went around if kiddo didn't tell her otherwise. Once she really focused and held that right rein a little, they met the middle of everything. So fun to watch! They're a really cute pair.

That catches you all up on the horses! As for me? I got to have dinner in a rose garden on Saturday with a bunch of friends which was super fun. It stormed just before we were supposed to arrive, but cleared up and stayed dry until we were finishing dessert when it started sprinkling a little. All in all, a lovely evening! Wish I snapped some photos! You'll just have to trust me. Sunday was Father's Day brunch on the boat which was also lovely. And then Monday I met a friend I haven't seen in AGES for dinner. She's showing at Fairfield this week which is about an hour and a half from where I live, so we met in the middle for a nice meal. Honestly, this is the most I've socialized in a very long time! But then, we had family dinner tonight, I'm attending a wedding Friday evening, and a graduation party this Saturday. I'm very much looking forward to having fewer plans next week! I've still been riding some extra horses most days too. Tuesday was pretty much a record day according to my apple watch:

How are all of you? Doing fun things? Feeling over-socialized like me? Showing? Tell me how things are going for you!