What's Up Wednesday

 

It's been a weird week around here guys. WEIRD. First, and kinda fun, we had some semi famous visitors at the barn over the weekend. 

This is Bucky

And this is Trumpet

I'm not sure if you recognize them, but they are currently touring with Bad Bunny. Bucky has been the one seen most so far as he's the more seasoned guy. Trumpet is younger and learning the ropes of being a concert horse. When they're not performing at major music venues, they are actually roping horses. I think from Texas. Bad Bunny was playing nearby on Friday so the horses laid over with us to rest up. They were very sweet and wildly unfazed about life. (Perhaps my next horse really should be one of these unfazed quarter horses.)

Another weird thing? I had ordered what I thought was a pair of fetlock boots from Ebay for Al for turnout when he gets home. But this is what arrived:

Right. That's a single boot. I guess for my one legged horse? Seriously, who sells a single boot?? Clearly I missed something in the description... Fortunately, they accepted the return with no issues. How silly though, right? (I told you. It's been a weird week.)

I finally went Friday for my consult with the ortho about my knee. He advises I get it repaired, but said I don't have to rush into that. So... for now I'm not doing that. It's a lengthy recovery time and likely a minimum of two months out of the saddle. That's a long time. Plus it's my right knee so I wouldn't be able to drive for awhile either. I live alone, so that's a real burden. I'm sure I'll repair it eventually. Just not right now. Instead, he prescribed me some more PT and suggested getting a real brace. (As opposed to the Amazon one I've been using... Lol. Doctors are so proper.) Can you believe all the great news this week?? The knee, the truck, the oil tank... The one boot. THE SADDLE PAD. Seriously. I wasn't kidding when I said it was weird around here. 

Things with the horses are... you know. Fine. I'm definitely looking forward to getting them home. Since everyone has returned I waste SO MUCH time just trying to get my horses ridden around everyone else. I'm the lowest rung on the ladder of boarders again so my needs are of zero importance. It's pretty uncomfortable. Just generally in life, I try really hard to not be a problem. I like to blend into the background. But sometimes I let everyone go ahead of me so much that I then get really frustrated because it's never my turn. Know what I mean? It's certainly a flaw on my part. But the consequences are frustration and annoyance. 

One such instance I mentioned last week. All winter I've been lessoning Al and Shiny both on Thursday and Saturday mornings. But with the BO home, the Thursday lessons are an inconvenience for her as we are in the way of her training rides. (She doesn't teach my lessons. If you recall the drama from December, that is why I will no longer lesson with her.) So I'm down to just Saturday for my lessons. And then I realized that this weekend I have a baby shower to attend Saturday, so that means I won't get to jump at all this week. Kind of disappointing. But we'll survive. 

I did get to lesson this past Saturday though. My usual instructor is on vacation, so we rode with assistant trainer. She's a young pro, just promoted from barn manager. The horses were great, and we had a nice lesson. I was especially proud of Al. He used nearly the entire ring and jumped a full course. He's been great since his time off while I was away. I'm starting to wonder if he's maybe not a six day a week horse. Like maybe he needs an extra day off each week or some other different schedule. Once I'm home we can experiment. 

Unfortunately, today he had a no good, very bad, day. They got shots yesterday and I think he woke up on the wrong side of the stall from that. He was spooky just walking to the cross ties. Which isn't normally him. But he tacked up fine. We got to the indoor (it was raining AGAIN), and did our one lap of hand walk each direction. Got on him. All good so far. But after my first lap of walk under saddle, he suddenly started snorting up a storm. Head in the air. Heard pounding. I didn't hear anything at first. But turns out one of the workers was spraying the sides of the indoor with weed killer. You could just barely hear him out there, but you couldn't see him. Poor Al was beside himself. He's really not confident in the indoor, but has been SO GOOD this whole week. (We're trying very hard to get outside, but the weather has been awful.) Anyway, I was trying to just get him to walk it out and relax, but then another horse spooked and Al full on ran into a standard in a blind panic. So I hopped off to fix the jump we knocked down, and figured I'd hand walk again until he came back down to planet Earth. Unfortunately, he was a snorty snort machine, and the BO had just gotten on one of the green horses for the vet who was out. She made a comment and I figured it was best to leave the ring. (Believe me, it was best.) I planned to ride him again later in the day after he had his turnout (and hours to chill the eff out). Unfortunately, the early afternoon lessons ran very late, so the break that was supposed to happen didn't and I wound up not getting him worked today. I did take him back out for grooming though and he was in a much better head space. So I don't think the lack of work today will cause any more problems. Time will tell of course. I'm a little worried that the noises today are going to stay with him like the door problem though. I REALLY hope not. But it is a concern. I just wish they'd tell us when they're going to be doing stuff like that. Of all the horses to be in the ring for it, it's particularly unfair to Al. I would have just done one of the others first.

Funny enough, somehow the guy was back out there when I was finishing up Eros' ride too. Poor dude was pretty freaked out, but since he's Eros, he trusted me and kept his poo together. There is something to be said for a nice 15 year old gelding... Lol! Eros has had his own ring challenges this week though. OH! But more importantly (and to be celebrated!) he's bumped up to ten minutes trotting! I'm still not convinced he's 100%, but he seems to improve the longer we trot rather than get more lame, so hopefully what I'm feeling now is just the maintenance stuff that's coming due. Regardless, he's doing well at the ten minutes. We'll go to 15 next week. And if that goes well for a week we can add some canter. Moving right along! 

Anyway, back to his ring drama. Sunday was ridiculous. It was cold and windy but for whatever reason, BO decided that a course would be set outside finally and all lessons would be out there! Which was fine with me, I figured I'd get the indoor to myself. But you see.... Almost none of the horses have been ridden outside yet this spring. So the training ride horses needed free lunges before going out to ride. And none of those free lunges were done early like normal. Nope. They were done as needed throughout the morning. I wanted to do Al inside so I did some waiting. Got him done. Yay! That's a win! I took Shiny outside since she's been out there a bunch and she gives zero poops about where she rides. But it was cold and miserable and I think we both hated every second of it. I didn't want to go out with Eros. He hasn't been out yet, and is still just rehabbing so despite him being a perfect specimen, there is an edge there. He doesn't need to be out there acting a fool on his questionable leg. Anyway, I had him all ready to ride, but then one of the amateurs wanted to free lunge her horse before her lesson outside. No problem. I waited. And waited. She was out there awhile. I finally get on. Walk our six minutes. Get five minutes into our trotting (so just the left) and as I'm trotting across the diagonal another ammy comes in with her horse. They had been in the lesson outside but her five year old horse was trying to launch her to China. Her five year old horse, who hasn't been ridden outside yet this year, let alone jumped out there. Did I mention his ammy is a novice level rider? (Does no one see a red flag here? Not that they're a bad match, I don't think that. Just the circumstances of the day was screaming red flag) Anyway, she needs to free lunge right now. Why he couldn't go on a lunge line outside is beyond me... but anyway. I had to dismount and leave the ring so the horse could lunge. I was so fed up I just let Eros quit with half a ride. He didn't seem to mind. And I was just over it. Needed to go be any where else. I mean, I wasn't mad at my fellow ammy. I would hope if the roles were reversed, I'd get the same consideration. I was just annoyed at the full day of waiting around and still not getting my rides done. And while it's really none of my business, I questioned the thought process of not prepping these horses appropriately. Shiny can go ride outside after months inside and she's fine. But young warmbloods aren't built like that. For me, I like to take a horse out slowly. Like maybe we lunge out there first. Or maybe we ride inside for a bit and then finish up outside the first day. And the first day I like to just be a flat. I don't think it's wrong necessarily to "see what happens" IF you have the tools to work it out. But if you know the riders don't have those tools... I dunno. Not the route I would take. OR if I KNOW a horse is going to be a nutter out there, I'm going to try and set us up for success, not just go out and see what happens. Cause you KNOW what's going to happen. As a kid I had trainer say you have to be more game to ride through the bad behavior. But in my old age, I'd rather set the horse up to not have the bad behavior. If tossing the horse on a line for five minutes lets him get that out, and then have a nice ride, why wouldn't you do that? (Exception of course is a horse like Eros that will likely lose a limb on a lunge line. No small circles for him!) 

What do you guys think? Is it wrong to take that approach? I'm not saying I'm right. I'm just an amateur, and lord knows I'm not very brave. So maybe my approach is wrong and it's just being a weenie? What are your thoughts here? Do we need to be willing to ride out the bucking and running? Or should we find ways to not invite that behavior? I'm not sure either way is right or wrong. But I'm curious what your thoughts are. 

I realize this post is pretty whiny too. Sorry guys. I have some angst I need to work through this week and this blog seems to be where it's happening. But I feel like sunshine and roses will be on the horizon soon! 

Hope you've all had a better week than I did! But if not, I applaud your tenacity for surviving it. Hopefully all good days ahead!