What's Up Wednesday

 

Spring has finally arrived! And not a moment too soon as we are ONE WEEK away from moving horses back home! I think things are mostly in order, but I'm still waiting for my stone dust to arrive to fill in the hole in my ring... There were a few places locally that sell stone dust, but only by the truck load which is way more than I need. So I ordered some from Home Depot foolishly thinking it would arrive quickly... Silly me. I'm still waiting. The closest one to me is about an hour away, but I probably should have just made the drive. It SHOULD be here Monday (just got an email...) on Tuesday, which is cutting it a little close for my liking, but what can you do? 

My ring hole, courtesy of the boulder below

This isn't a rock, it's a legit boulder.

As far as I can tell so far, other than this hole, things are mostly ready for the horses. My worker is going to do a final cleaning up this week and also put shavings and buckets back in the stalls. I haven't started packing because there's really not much stuff I can pack up yet. The weather is so up and down I'm afraid to put away any blankets! I'll probably just pack in the morning of moving day. We have a lot of stuff, but honestly the majority is blankets which don't take long to pack. They each have two bridles at the barn, so maybe I'll bring home one of each of those, and my full chaps and a few odds and ends this weekend. We'll see. 

The weather was all sorts of cuckoo crazy at the end of last week and the weekend. Saturday was AMAZING, in the upper 70's not too much wind, lots of sun. It was lovely. Sunday would have been similar but the 40 mph wind gusts were NUTS. Needless to say, we took advantage of the indoor that day. Since then though, it's been pretty nice! The last two days were nearly perfect and it continues until Saturday when we get rain. The only reason that's truly disappointing is that it's clinic day at the barn. I decided that if we get stuck indoors I'm going to sub in Eros and do a flat lesson. There's no point spending all that money to attempt to lesson on Al in the indoor. He's doing much better in there than earlier in the season, but it won't be the learning experience I'd like to have. Eros is feeling pretty great most days now though, so it would be beneficial to get a lesson on him. 

This week though? We've been LOVING the weather. Al is all in on being a good relaxed boy. Today perhaps a bit too relaxed when he flat out ignored my request to pick up the first trot... But hey, can't blame a guy for zoning out on such a gorgeous day. He did perk up slightly when I offered him some little jumpies to play with. 

His new favorite game is removing items from his body in turnout. Usually it's his bell boots, but occasionally it's also his fly mask. Yesterday, he removed one bell boot, and then just his ears from the fly mask. It was a look.

He seemed quite pleased with it though. I think it's like when little kids pick out their own clothes. It's never quite right, but as long as they're happy, who cares? 

Guys. Shiny straight up PLAYED me yesterday. Like fully 100% effed with me. I got on her in the outdoor ring, walked around a few times and then she REFUSED to pick up the trot. Like instead she halted and threw her head up and down. I was really worried something was wrong. She often ignores me, and wiggles around, but she's never flat out refused to trot for me before. (Canter with a kid? Definitely, but not trot with me.) I had several ideas of what could be the problem, but I wasn't really sure. They got shots on Friday which none of them had any sort of reaction to. They didn't even seem sore, which normally Shiny is. And I forgot to have doc give them to her in her pecs this time. So one thought was that maybe she had a delayed response to her shots. My other thought was that maybe she just was too warm since she still has a decent amount of winter hair still on her. My allergies were terrible, and we know that she has some lung stuff going on so maybe she was also feeling some allergies? Could the shimmed saddle pad be not quite right anymore? I decided to take her for a property walk instead and see if she perked up. Which she did. Her walk was all business as we wandered the property up and down the hills. So I felt a little better about things, and decided to see how she was the next day. I did note at the end of the ride that she was breathing a little hard, but nothing truly alarming. And she recovered nicely once I hosed her down. Today she was much better. I opted to ride her in the grass ring so we could avoid the dusty outdoor. Initially she tried the same thing when I asked for trot, but when I insisted she settled into work nicely. Although she did stop and steal some grass once... Ponies will always make you feel like a child. Ha! Anyway, I'm not so worried about her anymore, and instead feel a little silly that my pony fully took advantage of me. She's too much!

Eros is feeling pretty good these days. After our not so great ride that I reported on last week, he came out the next day ready for some fancy prancing. Eros used to have an incredible extended trot. Like the nicest one I've ever ridden. But it's been several years since I've been able to get it from him. Well last week, not only did we achieve it, but we had witnesses! (If no one else sees it, did it really happen?) It is a really special feeling when he sits back on his hocks to get that full extension. I could feel the pause before his front foot hit the ground and he was extending so far I could literally see his feet in my peripheral vision. I hope I can get it on video someday. The ring has dried out too much, so I won't ask for it again until we get some rain (it gets deep when it's too dry), but it's still nice to know thats still in there! So far this week he's been a little lazy but I think they need to acclimate to the warmer weather. 

So overall it was a good week! A little light in the workload with the shots on Friday and the weather being a little wild. But that's okay. We always end up a little off schedule when it's moving time anyway. We have the whole summer to get our poo together anyway. There's a chance I won't write a recap next week, just depending on how the move goes. But we'll have lots to report on between the clinic, the return home, and a braiding job this weekend. (Why does everything always happen at the same time?) 

Hope you all had a great week and weekend! Do anything fun with your horses?