What's Up Wednesday

 

Well. This week has been interesting thus far with the large dark horse I have... 

He's breathing like that from just hand walking slowly around the ring.

He's gone completely feral again. Stares out the window with bug eyes much of the day, couldn't even walk out to the ring without spooking. So being off the stomach meds is going swimmingly for him. Clearly. He's eating really well though, so that part is nice. 

At least he's nice to look at.

After two days of being nearly in tears whilst working with him I reached out to the vet. Because I have to tell you guys, I was spiraling hard that I am just a complete failure and should sell the farm and put all the horses in a training program somewhere else. Not even joking. I really was there. Because today, after doing ground work and hand walking Al for twenty minutes and him not settling, I clipped the lunge line to him and just had him do some transitions on a circle in an area of the ring he's not generally afraid of. Which he was more or less able to do. But still I only had about 45% of his attention. I felt good that he got some energy used up and did a little somewhat productive work. On the way back toward the barn we did practice a little more ground work, just to see if I could get his mind on me and off the terror of everything else. And just as I thought I'd made some progress, the effing neighbor did something, I have no idea what, that sounded similar to a metal tape measure snapping, you know that sound? But amplify it by like a million times. It was very loud. All the horses were upset. I got Al as settled as I could before walking him in, but man. Not how I wanted the day to finish for him. 

Photos from last week when we actually did a little riding.

Anyway, I sent a text to the vet, and just asked him, do you think this is just a behavioral problem and not medical at this point? And he said there's a possibility, but he's still convinced there's something else going on. Which is somewhat reassuring for my self esteem, but honestly, I'm not sure that I'm convinced. Maybe I did just really, royally screw this horse up. But I'm not one to admit defeat without a thorough check of the possibilities. Spiral into a deep depression and lose all faith in myself? Yes. Definitely those things. But not admit defeat. Ha. So anyway, rather than just keep on throwing stomach meds at him, we're going to scope this time and see what we're dealing with. I don't think that can happen until a week from Friday because doc is tied up with some family stuff this week. But we've suffered this long, we can suffer a little longer. I'm going to call his office in the morning to get us scheduled though. He also suggested a supplement we can try in the meantime that's supposed to be really great for anxiety. It's one of the Chinese herbs and while I'm very much pro western medicine, I've also had some great results with these herbs for various things. And whatever, I'll try anything. 

A rare moment looking pretty nice

So yeah. The lessons and animal communicator and vet stuff can't all happen soon enough. Because I'm a little bit coming undone. I'm going to do Al last tomorrow because he's really ruining my rides on whoever is number three lately. Which has been Eros the last couple of days. And I know he doesn't mind a little bit of a lighter ride, it's not helping him get stronger either. Plus, I really shouldn't let one bad apple ruin the whole fruit salad ya know? 

Speaking of Eros... I don't know if I'm imagining it, but I think he's starting to feel better already with the doxy on board. He's also been a little spooky, but nothing like his brother. (Thank goodness.) He's feeling stronger and he hasn't had a missed lead change in at least a week. Which normally he has one that's tricky for him. I even let him pop over a handful of baby sized jumps the other day and he felt good! A bit of a torpedo but that's to be expected. Lol! 

I'm not working him overly hard or for a very long time since he's on the meds and all. But just enough to keep him progressing and getting stronger. I'm so grateful for him. He really is my rock when my emotions get broken. 

Speaking of reliable rocks... Miss Shiny is also that. While she may not be perfect, she's the same pony every day. She comes out and trots the slowest trot any pony has ever offered and then goes to work. Every day. No surprises from her! Well, almost none. She is a living breathing pony mare after all! She is still a little lazy, but I mean, she is who she is. I'll take that over spooking and spinning any day. 

We only jumped one day last week, but she was so great! She's the only one I can jump courses on at the moment, so she's really stepped up to be kind of my main ride. Maybe I should just collect myself some ponies and give up on full sized horses. I seem to be less likely to screw up the smaller ones. Anyway, I continue to be really impressed with how much better she feels since dropping all that weight. She hardly ever trips anymore, and she's so supple on both sides. We still have to talk about the left shoulder at the start of every ride, but the conversation is a lot shorter than it used to be. I just think she feels a lot better. She still thinks I'm starving her though. She broke the crossties on my worker the other morning because she could see her hay net but couldn't reach it. She's rotten! But I can't blame a girl. Diets are hard. 

In other news, I went to a little party at the winter barn on Friday and it was so nice to see everyone! I can't get over the difference in atmosphere between this place and the old one. Like people are genuinely happy to see you. And I didn't feel all anxious on my way there. So nice. The clinician whom I lessoned with there is coming back in July, so hopefully Al will have turned a corner and we'll be able to ship over for that. We shall see!

That's about it from here. I hope summer is treating your horses better than it is Al!