What's Up Wednesday

 

So a funny thing happened last week after I gave Al so much praise... And yes, I'm CLEARLY a crazy person for constantly allowing the hope to creep in. 

Full of hope here!

But here's what happened. Despite my ordering more Esomeprazole for Al on the Monday right after his last scope, for some reason the pharmacy took ten days to send it to me. And I had only enough left for eight days. He is still on the Sucralfate, and I had a different Omeprazole product still from our last attempt at curing these ulcers, so I figured we'd be okay for a couple of days. I was not going to panic nor was I going to jump to any conclusions and create a problem where there wasn't one. Really. I truly thought we'd be fine. 

Obviously, since I'm talking about it, I was wrong. So, SO wrong. After our wonderful and exciting (in a good way) jump school on Wednesday, he was a completely unhinged psychopath on Thursday. We're talking dragon breathing, snorting, head in the air, spinning around in place cuckoo. So bad that I actually got off and just worked him on the lunge instead. And he was even nutty on the lunge line. Talk about soul crushing. But ever the optimist, I hoped maybe he was just having a bad day. Maybe the next day he would be okay. I mean, he's been on such a good roll for SO long, it couldn't all be over. Right?

No. Friday wasn't much better. It was a little better. No spinning in place. But that was the only improvement. Thankfully the correct meds arrived that afternoon, so Saturday he could get back on his scheduled treatment plan. Saturday was a little better than Friday. But still. It wasn't great. Sunday is Sunday Funday over here, but I was not about to ride Al without a bit or saddle this week. So we instead did a walk/trot low pressure ride. And it wasn't too bad. Still angsty on the scary side of the ring, but I didn't feel like he was electrified anymore so that's a good step in the right direction. 

Did earn himself some snackies!

This week he's been slowly but surely coming back to earth. I had hoped to jump him a little today, but with his delicate psyche just coming around and the wind blowing... I opted out. Not quite ready yet. Probably more me than him that's not ready, but whatever. I have to be smart this week because I have a lot of braiding the next two weekends. And what's the rush? There isn't one. And so we flatted. And it wasn't bad. So I'm calling that a win. But I am concerned that these ulcers might never heal. Or maybe it was just acid storm he was experiencing? I dunno. Whatever it was, it wasn't good! But I am relieved he's coming back around. Fingers crossed it was the med change (as it does seem to be) and not some other problem that I'll need to figure out. Because this horse has taught me a lot of lessons, but I could use a little break from all the learning for a little bit. 

In summary, Al had a rough few days, but I think he's coming around. And yes, I'm dumb enough to keep hoping for that!

Eros has been testing the waters a little bit lately too. He's not being naughty of course, that's not who he is. But he does this thing that my mother does when she calls me. She's there on the phone with me, but she's not actually listening to anything I might say. The Eros version of that is this: He will be present for our rides, but only like 40% of attention will be on me. The rest is somewhere outside the ring wondering how much longer till dinner, and how many more years he'll have to work before he retires. You know, just horse thoughts. I didn't fully notice just how tuned out he was until today though. I was thinking about jumping him a little so I came to the ride unarmed. (And by that I mean no spurs and no stick because those things cause torpedos when we jump.) Guys. I asked him to trot and it took three tries until he did it. I chalked that up to not being warmed up. Eros takes a bit to get going, it's just who he is as a horse. But like, it kept happening. Delayed responses to everything. Once I asked him to circle and he was so busy looking out of the ring he just never turned. 

I realized I had been letting him just half do all of our rides for awhile now (obviously) and this was definitely an issue that I slowly allowed to happen. So today's plan shifted from jumping to a much more intense flat ride. We did transitions. SO MANY transitions. Until they were prompt. Then we trotted figures until he agreed to look where he was going and not outside the ring. And then we both were very sweaty and tired. I imagine we'll need a few more rides like this one to get him back on track fully, but I was happy with how he finished. So that was nice. 

Honestly, I get a little bit of a giggle out of Eros being a distracted old man. He's just generally such an agreeable guy that it's funny when he's just kind of doing his own thing. And at his age, why shouldn't he? (Don't tell him I said that.) 

Otherwise, he's been a good boy. And hopefully we can do some jumpies later this week. We shall see. There's always next week!

Shiny has been great! I don't really do the fun stuff with her in the summer because her kiddo does all the jumping days, but they've been doing so well together! Today kiddo learned how to get her on the bit, and it was so perfect! I have her coming a few extra days over the next week or so to help me out during the big braiding days. Shiny's kiddo has always had somewhat challenging horses to learn on, so Shiny's been the most reliable teacher for her. And it's really fun to watch them growing as a pair so nicely. 

Shiny is in the dog house though over one thing. This summer she's started this fun game of peeing on the crossties. Up until today she has only done it in the wash stall, but today she did it in the aisle. Which was a lot harder to clean up and definitely a lot more annoying. While I don't truly think anything is wrong, I am going to have doc pull a blood panel on her next time he's out just to be sure there's not something going on. I kind of think she does it just to get back to her stall. Usually I can catch her start to stretch out and I'll toss her in the stall. But I've noticed once in the stall, if there's hay in there, she doesn't go pee right away. First she eats the hay. She's a smart pony, and I kind of think she's figured out how to get back to her food faster. Didn't work today though. Since she had already peed and hadn't yet been washed off from her ride, she got to stand extra long in the crossties after her shower to dry off. And then I fed everyone lunch, while she was drying. She was big mad. But she had nothing left to excrete which I think contributed to her frustration. Lol. It's tough being a pony. 

I accidentally filmed myself (from my pocket) putting shavings on this peepee.
So here's a screenshot of the soaking up of the pee. This was followed by
sweeping up all the shavings, and then a simple green scrub, a rinse, and a towel dry.
I'm pretty sure it still smells like pee. But what more can I do? I might spray some
enzyme on there tomorrow to get the smell out. 

That's about it from here this week. Just plugging along, trying to be the best we can be. Some days are more successful than others. Haha! Nothing exciting planned for the next couple of weeks while I'm busy with twisting hairs. What about you guys?? Have anything exciting planned?