What's Up Wednesday

 

This week has been trying to say the least. I mean, it's solidly first world problems, and in the grand scheme what's bugging me is generally pretty trivial. But I am tired. And frustrated. And it's probably best if I don't go on too much about it here since it's a semi public space. But suffice to say, I think I will be taking a break from lessons with Al for a little while. Through no fault of his own. He's been a pretty good boy overall. I tried to lesson Sunday morning but for some reason everyone decided to ride at the same time. With like 8 horses in the ring, it was just utter chaos (they were all seemingly very wild) and I just called it a day. Al is a spooky horse and being in a ring packed full of other spooking horses is just not the right setting for him. I realize that this will sometimes be something we encounter at a horse show, but at this point in where we are, it's not a problem we're ready to tackle. 

Yesterday I had a flat lesson on him, and he was lovely. He still struggles some with the counter canter tracking right, but he's trying very hard with it. It will come in time I think. Something to work on over the winter anyway. 

We tried a jumping lesson again today, and Al was being a good dude. But let's just say, things went weird and I wound up getting off. Not because Al was doing anything wrong. Nor was I. I've been riding just fine of late. I'm not sure if there will be an instructor here this winter, but if there is, I may just hold off on lessons and jumping until the crew heads south. Just hit a reset and start over then. It's only a few more weeks. Al might hate it, but I'm tired of just failing all the time. Especially when the failure is the result of outside forces. I can fuck up just fine all on my own thanks.

Shiny is feeling pretty great though! She didn't get to jump the past week, but she's going to tomorrow morning in what's normally Eros' lesson. I'm pretty excited, hopefully she will be too... But like, not TOO excited.... haha!

And in other disappointing news... Eros has been off since last Thursday. He had a free lunge before our lesson, but when I got on he wasn't quite right. Then we changed direction and he was super unsound. I was hoping maybe abscess. He wears pads, so I couldn't really poke and prod, but my farrier was out Monday to trim and/or shoe them all and he didn't find anything. I hopped on him Tuesday to see if new shoes and a trim would magically fix the problem, but no luck. He was better than he was Thursday, but still noticeably unsound. I gave him today off, but I'll probably tack walk him tomorrow and trot a few steps just to assess before the vet comes Friday. I don't see any abnormal swelling nor feel any real heat anywhere, so I'm not sure where the issue is. I'm wondering if he maybe tweaked a shoulder. I dunno. Fingers crossed for an easy fix on Friday. 

So kind of a Debby Downer post today, sorry friends. Tomorrow will be more fun, I promise! Because Chanukah starts tomorrow night! And we're going to start celebrating in the daytime, because I have a lot of outfits.