What's Up Wednesday

 

Well, I'm happy to report that none of the horses are any worse for the wear after their weekend off. I wasn't too concerned about the older two but you just never know with Al... Though honestly, he is different every day of the week, so time off doesn't really change that. I suppose that's a win? Hard to say really...  

Eros is plugging right along. We've increased our trot time from three two minute bursts to six continuous minutes. Seems to be going fine. I can't say he feels like the soundest horse I've ridden, but I do think we're back to Eros' baseline. He's 15 now, so expecting him to feel perfect is pretty unreasonable. And he gets better the longer he goes, so I'm feeling optimistic that we're on the right track. Doc said to add five minutes each week and we can canter once we've been at 15 for a full week. But I'm taking that a little extra slow because I will be away all next week and he'll have some more time off. I figure better to go slow than fast. We're not on any kind of timeline here. 

Shiny is feeling good lately! She's still ornery about canter transitions and also about getting back to work after a break. But our chiro hasn't been here since February and I honestly think Shiny is just really missing her adjustment. Hopefully we can get that done soon now that circuit is over. But our lessons have been super fun! She has plenty of step all of a sudden and is really starting to jump across the fences instead of just kind of straight up and down. That's something we've always struggled with, and I can't help but think that the EPM meds might be responsible for this change. She's starting to feel... sturdier? I guess? I don't know what adjective I really want, but I am feeling like she's more solid under me lately. She still trips some, and we still have the kicking out, so I can't say epm was responsible for all of her behaviors. But I do think it was festering in the background anyway. 

And then there's Al. Ah Al. He's been really, really good some days and not very good at all other days. But that's kind of who Al is. Especially this time of year. Fortunately, he has been showing up for our lessons this past week. (He was really good today though, so that doesn't bode well for tomorrow's lesson.) With a little help from our lesson buddies, we're using almost the entire ring for our courses. We get one of our buddies to stand in front of the scary doors, and that seems to appease Al. Often, when we're attempting our courses which are usually modified from what everyone else is doing, whenever we get to the scary end of the ring, it's all I can do to keep Al cantering. But Saturday? Saturday he just coursed right around like a champ! He even came forward to the fences, and I remembered what it's like to have a real canter and be able to find the jumps out of stride. It's lovely. I doubt we'll get that tomorrow because it's going to be like 34 degrees when our lesson starts and raining. But at least we had the one lesson where that happened. I'm feeling optimistic that we'll have another good summer. We just have to keep pushing on while we wait for it to arrive. I'm not really one to say I want to jump bigger, but we've been popping around over 2'- 2'3" and honestly, I'm feeling like it would be nice to have a rideable horse so we could jump something a little more substantial. All in good time though. No need to do anything we're not ready for.

We'll get all of our lessons in this week, and then Sunday I'm heading north to visit my little brother. His farm is right in the path of totality for the eclipse, so my dad rented a house for us to all stay in while we experience that. Should be fun! We'll be up there until Tuesday, head back home for a night, and then fly out to the Bahamas for a few days since the nieces are having their April break. I don't normally join them for the April trip, but figure I should take advantage of having the horses boarded and a free vacation while I have the opportunity. I am starting to feel a little anxious about getting things ready at home for the horses to come back. So it's maybe not the BEST time to leave. But things will work out. They always do. And I don't really have to leave the boarding barn until June when my stepmom's horses return, so if I'm not ready on April 30th it's not the end of the world. 

Are you in a good path for eclipse viewing? Get your glasses already? I saved mine from the last one because I knew this one was coming. Surprisingly, I didn't lose them! This is especially surprising because I had them in a my desk at work, so anything could have happened when they packed up my stuff and sent it back to me. But the glasses made it all in tact!