What's Up Wednesday

 

We're just over here riding this weather roller coaster like everyone else. It was AMAZING today. 65 degrees! And we even saw the sun! Ending soon though, snow coming Friday. Of course. Oh New England...

This week's edition of waiting for the drag
to finish: Hanging with Merlin the super 
fat goat.

I still have no media, but plenty to catch up on! We'll catch up alphabetically and start with Al. Guys, I just love this horse! We're certainly FAR from perfect together, but we're absolutely improving each week. The flatwork has come pretty far. He still likes to pop up out of the contact, but I can get him back a lot more quickly. For the most part it's due to his curiosity about his surroundings and not really that it's too hard for him to stay round. I don't think he struggles with that at all. He's just so nosy! If he comes up out of the contact, he can is able to see out the windows in the indoor. And apparently there is a LOT to see out there. Maybe this will all be easier when we get outside and he can see from any head level. He's wonderful to jump though. All business when there's stuff to jump over! Our biggest struggle right now is mostly my fault. Unless I really keep pushing through the turns, he will fall behind my leg and then my only option is the chip. But when I remember to keep my leg actively on the horse (you know, remember to ride the horse...) everything comes up perfectly out of stride. 

All is going well with Eros too. He was a star in last week's lesson and didn't really run off with me at all. It helped that the course that week had no related distances... Those straight lines just get him so excited! Ha! He's feeling pretty sound (knock on wood) especially on days like today when it's warm out. I'm thinking he's almost ready to bump back up to jumping twice a week. Will just have to find another lesson we fit into. 

Pammon had a recheck on Monday with the vet and (BIG NEWS!) we get to start trotting! We're doing five minutes to start this whole week and next we can bump up to ten as long as the leg looks good still. He has to wear his Equibands every day for right now though as he's still only minimally using his core. Tough to learn new tricks as a teenager! But he's trying. 

Apparently I take a lot more photos of Shiny
than anyone else. Don't tell the others!

Per the vets orders on his last visit, Shiny needs to eat from a hay net to slow down her intake. Because she has some neck issues and since she's barefoot, I chose to try the hay pillow for her. So far, it's working out great. She really seems to actually like it. She had some loose hay in the stall the other day, and she opted to pluck from the pillow over that. 

My vet was surprised (pleasantly) that despite her obesity (his words...) her bloodwork all looked good. Since she was negative for lyme we decided to ahead with some injections. We've done Pro Stride with her before in her neck with good results, but this time we decided to try something different. I'm not in any hurry to put steroids in her body (given her age and weight) so we opted for Alpha-2 instead. These injections use her own plasma protein (ultra concentrated) rather than a steroid. She's on vacation until Friday, so I'm not sure how well it worked yet. But I'm optimistic. We did hocks and shoulders based on her work up from last time. Interestingly, despite her flexing well on the hocks, the lower was very tight on the right side. So I'm hopeful we will see a big difference, at least there if no place else. That is the leg that seems to struggle the most. Fingers crossed!

The neat thing about the Alpha-2 is that we actually had leftover plasma. If you keep it frozen it's good for awhile, so we can do more joints with what we already have if need be. I mean... everyone has some pony plasma in their freezer right?

I keep mine under the Eggos. 

The short kids are still challenging me every day in new and different ways... Pia's latest fun party trick is to bark ALL. NIGHT. LONG. So I don't really sleep anymore. We're experimenting with giving her Gabbapentin at different times, so hopefully a later dose will result in a nice sleepy pug come night time. I hope. Hope so hard. 

Rita is doing better. She is mostly peeing outside, and she only has to wear her diaper at night now. Pooping on the other hand... She just prefers to do that in my house I guess. It's a little frustrating. But what can you do? She's so sweet and good otherwise. We'll keep working on it. 

Family photo!

And that's it! We're all caught up! How's your week going?