What's Up Wednesday

 

When we last left off I was monitoring Al a little closely for a thick leg that he had. I'm pretty sure he must have just banged himself because it's back to normal now. Not palpating sore at all anymore. Phew. Of course, he had to do something new this week instead.

Puffy eyelid

He's very committed to finding ways to earn vacation days. Fortunately, after a quick text with the vet and a dose of Banamine it is nearly back to normal today. So hopefully tomorrow he'll be as good as new. 

This past week we actually had a full 6 days of rides (though Al was mostly walk/trot, and Friday I lunged him to see what he looked like). Shiny's kid came out twice too, and had great rides. While I always appreciate Shiny, and I know what a wonderful pony she is, seeing her build confidence back for her kiddo is something really special. Shiny may not be a six figure, fancy show pony but she is invaluable to me.

Our streak of getting all the rides in ended today though. We're getting a lot of smoke from the Canadian wildfires and it was very uncomfortable here. The morning wasn't bad while the horses were out, but by about noon it was pretty bad. I found it a little harder to breath and decided if I felt that, the horses would too

This is a photo of the sun at about 5pm

Video above was taken around 2pm. It was pretty eery out. I'm not sure tomorrow will be any better, but fingers crossed I'm wrong.

Today was productive though! The boys had their... boyhoods cleaned which was overdue. Everyone had a nice shower and some grass. And then I cleaned and conditioned all the saddles which... I can't remember when I did that last but it was much needed. They were getting slippery to ride in. I should be ashamed! 

befores on the left, afters on the right

They were so dirty. Much better now! I didn't have time for bridles though. Maybe tomorrow if we're smoked out again. 

Eros, before the smoke arrived anyway, has been taking one for the team as my main riding horse this week. I've ridden Shiny on the days her kiddo doesn't come, but since they usually jump together and Al was semi out of commission, that left Eros to be my main dude. And he sure did show up for it! There's definitely something to be said for the teenaged horses. 

Not too much else happening over here. So far so good with our new helper. She's a hard worker and pays attention to details which is refreshing! I'm hoping to have my mornings back to catch up on some work projects. I also have a lot of calls to make to get some things taken care of here at the farm. I have a tree that needs to come down, some fencing to get fixed, and I really need to get my truck running. Once the truck is functional then the Gator needs to go in because it's having some issues. It's amazing how much things can pile up. I have reached out to get the fence fixed but I've been ghosted, so I guess I need to find someone new for that. 

Anyway, that's it for this week! Hopefully the smoke clears out soon and we can be back to work by the weekend. Hope you're not in the smoke path too!