What's Up Wednesday

 

Heh, all I can say is we have been consistently inconsistent of late. But you know what? That's okay! I did ride all six days last week, but Thursday which was Yom Kippur I only had time for two so Eros had an extra day off last week. This week is just silly with days off though. Today we got rained out and Friday they are getting fall sheets and their dentals so another day off. Needless to say, no jump schools this week. Still okay though, plenty of time to jump in the future. 

Eros is still feeling kinda meh. I gave him an especially easy weekend, mostly just tack walking. Tuesday he came out pretty stiff, but once warmed up he did feel better than last week. So hopefully we're moving in the right direction. I'm pulling Lyme titers when we get shots this week so I'm curious to see if that might be what we're dealing with again. I say this because what I'm feeling isn't his normal front end stuff, it's something behind that I can't really pinpoint. If the titer comes back low and he still feels off in another week I'll call our lameness vet. But for now, it's nothing too severe, so I'm doing a little wait and see. 

Al's had an interesting week. There were two neighbor free days in which Al used the entire ring and more or less rode like a normal horse. Well. A normal, very lazy and semi unresponsive to my leg kind of horse. But whatever, for now I'll take that! Then the other days old bang and clang was out there banging and clanging away. Those days we had to use less of the ring and Al wasn't as good. But he never made me feel like death was imminent, so I think that's a positive. Tuesday we had the neighbor doing his thing out there AND all kinds of crazy wind (even Shiny spooked on Tuesday!) so we rode on a circle. Which I'm choosing to focus on the positive here so despite only using a small section of the arena, we did actually get some work done. The canter was ridiculous, and I'm not sure it fully qualifies as a canter... but for now I'll count it. Even if it had like ten million beats to it and covered about three inches of ground per stride... It was definitely something different than trot. I dunno guys. I think that's just who this horse is. Some days are good and some are less good, and we just need to work around that I guess. He seems to be in a good mood though, and I think (hope) his tummy feels good. He's off the esomeprazole completely now, so I'm hoping he stays okay without it. Doc has me keeping him on the sucralfate for now. He's eating really well and looks to be comfortable. So overall a good week I think. He did earn a bitless Sunday Funday which mean he got to ride out in the backyard and have snackies. He's only gotten that privilege a few times, so it's a pretty big deal! I do think he's the type that would enjoy riding out, but first he has to realize that trees aren't terrifying. One thing at a time. 

Shiny's the only one that did a little jumping this week. She's been feeling pretty good though still definitely lazy. At least until yesterday when she was a lil spicy! The only thing I've found that truly startles her is when things fall. She hates that. Tuesday when we were walking at the start of our ride, there was a big gust of wind and it blew over the little cross rail I had set up into the combination. Of course it was right next to us when it happened and she did a little bolt. Her little bolt always makes me laugh because it doesn't unseat you and it's very short lived. And then it's like it never happened. She never holds onto being afraid of things. If there's something that startles her, she usually then marches right up to it to investigate. I just love how brave she is like that. The flight response is weak in this one. Thank goodness. I'm not sure I could handle a barn full of Als. I think she really likes her new saddle too. She's significantly less cranky when I tack her up. So I'm taking that as a sign she likes it. 

Not too much else happening over here really. I used the rain day today to clean and condition my saddles and put a nameplate on Shiny's new one. I had ordered an extra one maybe for Pammon's saddle? So I had it already which was very convenient. They sure do look pretty all together in the tack room:

It's funny to look at them from the back and see how differently shaped all my horses are.

Can you guess which saddle goes with which horse? 

We're about to have a forty degree temp drop tonight, so tomorrow should be... something. Glad the saddles will be extra grippy! You guys have any big plans for the weekend? We're just going to lay low after shots and the wild temperature change. Maybe we'll find some consistency next week though!