What's up Wednesday

 

Oh man, guys. It rained every single day last week. Not all day everyday. Everyone got ridden most days (well... sort of, Al had last Tuesday off and a tack walk that Wednesday due his tummy troubles as mentioned last week, and one of the days Eros got rained out. But for THE MOST PART they got worked.) But all of the rides were on half the ring because the top half was too wet for riding on. Which also meant no one jumped last week. Which is fine. It never hurts for them to have an easier week here and there. 

Lots of rainbows lately! This is a different one from 
the one I shared last week. If you look closely, it's a double!

Friday night into Saturday it must have deluged out there though. We were getting some of the edges of the remnants from Debby. It wasn't bad here at all, but the ring was SO wet Saturday morning. Even the front half was sloppy. I was hopeful it would dry out pretty well by the time I finished chores, but it really didn't. And honestly, I couldn't bring myself to ride on that tiny circle for a fifth day in a row. So after much deliberating, I finally decided to let the horses have the day off. I gave them all an extra hour of turnout in exchange which they seemed perfectly happy with. I've been wanting to move the jumps, so I took that chunk of time I would have spent riding to move the jumps. And repair all the fill that hulk smash Eros has been doing his thing to. One of the palm trees is not likely to make it to next season... Currently it is being held together by duct tape and baling twine. This is why we can't have nice fun things! Anyway, I got all the fences moved, and I think I like the new course. It's pretty basic, but there are some options for bending lines and lots of places to roll back on jumps too. And I THOUGHT I set everything to be very inviting for Al, but um...

That footwork in the front though...

I guess not. Haha! Don't worry he came back and was fine the next time. 

To be noted however, this was the moment that I remembered I do not have a functional right knee.

In exciting news though, our favorite trainer is home! Just for a few weeks, so we likely won't get to any shows with her (there's literally nothing locally we can go to while she's here, which is a total bummer) but I'm just glad to get some fresh ideas to try with Al. We tried two different exercises today to try and get him moving forward better, but well... They didn't really help. He was pretty distracted today though. Not terrible, we were able to ride through it mostly, but he wasn't in the mood for the work today. We were jumping with Shiny and her kid, so we left all the fences Shiny size especially since Al was out to lunch. True story... Al and Shiny were getting the same amount of strides in the lines. Dude was pony striding today! I think if the jumps were bigger he MIGHT have been more motivated. Maybe. But since he had his troubles last week and the course was new, and all the other excuses, we let it be for today. I was overall happy with him, even if he is exhausting. 

Shiny was really great for her kiddo. They really get along well. It's really fun to see kiddo starting to trust Shiny more and more. Now, even if she makes a mistake, she doesn't panic. She just works it out and moves on to the next thing. I don't really share photos of other people's children on the internet, but here are a couple where you can't see her face well.

Shiny really loves her. I've always been kind of possessive of my horses, but I love sharing Shiny with her. It's been rewarding watching her be a good pony for someone who's just coming up the ranks.

Eros is doing well too! I'm not thrilled with how he starts each ride, just kind of all over the place it feels like. But he gets better and better as the ride goes along. I had been doing some lateral work toward the end of our rides, but I've started doing that stuff more in the middle, and it really improves the quality of the work afterwards. He's much more willing to bring his hind under himself after doing that which is what I've been struggling with. I'm toying with the idea of asking doc about a course of tolt for him. Both the other horses improved dramatically after we did that, and if they both might have had EPM, he likely would also. Which I think might explain why the hind end feels so disconnected. But honestly the vet bills this summer... So I may wait until fall when we have our next check in. Unless something changes for the worse of course. 

Mad that I didn't let him run at this one, hence the mouth

being extra with that front leg

Speaking of vets, I had our local vet out Friday for Al to take a look at him and run some bloodwork. I prefaced our visit with the fact that I am a little crazy and just wanted to check on things to ease my insane brain. Which he was very receptive of, and even offered up a story where he spiraled a bit too. Which is nice when they can commiserate with the lay people. Anyway, the exam went fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Bloodwork was all clear which was a relief because part of my insane self was convinced his kidneys were bad like Jamp's. They are not. That was crazy of me. Ha! Yay! Love when I'm wrong sometimes. We did the fecal that checks for blood/ulcers and that was clear too. But what did show up positive was sand in the fecal. So that was interesting, but not all that surprising since we turnout on sand. So now I have some mats down for the turnout hay and everyone has gone on Sand Clear. Which isn't that cheap... But you do what you gotta do! They're all on it for six weeks, but after that they only need it one week per month. So that's not so bad. Doc also wants Al on Assure Guard Gold for at least six weeks when we do the next fecal. I'm hoping he can come off that then, because it's over $300 for a month and a half. But you know. If he needs it, he needs it. I like Ramen. Fortunately. Haha. Oof.

That's about it from here this week. I probably won't lesson again until next week because I have a bunch of braiding plus chores this weekend. But hopefully for the next few weeks we'll have some good stuff to talk about!