Well, the good news is that February is moving along much more quickly than January did. (Seriously though, was that no the longest month in the history of forever??) The bad news though, is that it just keeps doing winter things. We've had a few days above freezing finally, but not usually consecutively. And every other day or so we get winter precipitation. Last night we got a couple of inches of snow, nothing too crazy, but more than was in the forecast. Tonight we're getting a little more, but then it's turning to freezing rain and eventually regular rain. Which I imagine will freeze up over night because that's what happens here. At least the days are getting longer though! There is hope! It's a dim light... but it's there!
Anyway, enough about the weather. Let's talk about horses!
Eros asked me to take a selfie today so I let him. I think he did a pretty good job for not having hands. He's feeling really good lately. He's moving more forward which helps pretty much everything else come together. I imagine the change in how he is going is mostly due to the Robaxin he's been on for just over three weeks now. He has a recheck hopefully this Friday though I haven't gotten confirmation on that yet. I'll find out then if he should come off and see how he holds up, or if Doc wants to keep him on it for a bit longer. We'll see what he thinks. I'm also wondering if he's really liking the re paneled saddle. I still hate it, but he's going so well I may have to learn to love it. It's not like I show him in the equitation or anything where I need to not look like I'm clinging on for dear life... That might be an exaggeration. Slight. Slight exaggeration. I did hear back from my rep though. She is going to help me figure things out, but she wants me to put 20 rides in it before we go further. She says it needs to be broken in again like a new saddle since the panels and the bottom flaps are brand new. And I can see where that might make sense as the more I ride in it, the less I feel like my legs are bouncing around. But I don't really think breaking it in will help the feeling of sliding backwards down a mountain. But you never know! I'm open to seeing how it goes. As long as the horse feels good, I can figure it out.
With the exception of today... Al's been a pretty good boy. I had a feeling he wouldn't be good today, so probably I just caused that. I got to the barn a little bit later than normal, and the turnout schedule was a little altered today due to some other horses having things that needed to be scheduled around. So I rode Al last instead of first. And it was dinner time. Which I didn't really think should be problematic because Al has decided he no longer eats grain. He's done this before. I don't know what gets him to come around and start eating again. His appetite for hay is just fine. He likes treats. He just hates his grain. He's not acting colicky. Pooping just fine. He's getting his misoprostol. (I put that in a Dimples cookie so that he eats right up.) He's not getting his omeprazole since that's in the grain. So that's frustrating, He's also not eating any of his other supplements for gut health. I should probably just light some money on fire instead of trying to feed him.
Eating habits aside, with the exception of today, he's actually been pretty good to ride. One day last week one of the other boarders was waiting for her farrier to arrive so she came and hung out in the ring while I rode Al. He loves company, whether it's human or equine (or the goat at the old barn) so he was wonderful that day. We even popped over a little raised cavalletti course. We both had fun. I think he misses jumping and I really should set some stuff up for him to jump one of these days. I make a lot of excuses, mostly about the weather, but maybe what I really need to do is be a little more serious and get to work. Spring is coming! But also I'm still kind of scared he'll spin and dump me on landing side since the ring is small and there's a horse eating door at both ends... I need to figure that part out. And dig out the brave pants. Forever a work in progress, me and Al. But we're nothing if not persistent!
I was walking Shiny out and she saw one of the other boarders in the lounge and wanted to hang out with her. So we got this cute photo through the window. Shine's doing okay these days. I'm feeling a little concerned because while she's dropped a lot of weight and looks good as far as weight goes, I feel like she's lost her top line and some muscling over her hindquarters. Part of me is spiraling and concerned there's something wrong medically, the more logical part of me thinks it might finally be time to adjust her Thyro-L dosage. Doc is going to see her again too when he hopefully comes Friday so we will discuss that. I may have him do a blood panel, just to check in. She is going better in some ways since being on the EPM meds. Up until today she hasn't tripped much, if at all. And when we've done some little jumpies she's using herself really well even though the "jumps" have been about 18 inches high. But she is still taking a really long time to warm up. And she definitely needs some vet work in the neck or maybe shoulder area as she's still bouncing on and off the contact in both directions at the trot. I prefaced the "she hasn't tripped much" statement above with "up until today" because today, she tripped so hard while trotting she went to her knees and had a very difficult time recovering from the stumble. I really thought we were both going all the way down. But she did work it out and we both stayed up right. Thankfully. I let her walk a bit before going back to trot and she didn't seem any worse for the wear, but she did trip a couple more times before I decided to just walk her out and see what we have tomorrow. I'm not sure if I should be very worried, or if the problem is actually just that the ring needs a drag. We have the travellite footing which is the wax stuff. It can get a little hard and packed down when it needs a drag (which it does) and she's barefoot so it's not uncommon for her to get a little caught up in that kind of footing. She also had a tough time with the GGT at the other barn. I've decided to hold off on spiraling until I see how she goes tomorrow, and/or after when the ring is dragged next. (Which I'm hoping is tomorrow, but we'll see!)
So that's where we're at this week. Nothing too exciting, but nothing terrible either. Just kind of getting through the winter that won't let up. I'm not sure it comes across that way, but I am overall pretty happy with how the horses are going. Just a few things still to iron out, but that's horses isn't it? Always some things to keep improving on. Whether it's performance, or veterinary, or... psychologically. Just gotta keep at it!
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