What's Up Wednesday

 

It was pretty quiet still around here this past week. 

Photo credit to one of my favorite barn moms!

As mentioned, Al is first re-starting lessons tomorrow, so he's just been flatting. We had mostly good rides last week, though this week he's been a bit more challenging. In his defense, conditions haven't been as ideal when we've ridden so far this week. For one thing, it's colder out. He's definitely a happier, more relaxed horse when it's warm out. And the second imperfection has been our company or lack of. Yesterday he rode with a horse that was also being afraid of the end of the ring. So Al took this behavior as confirmation of his fears and was just... not his best self. I eventually just went back to walk until that other horse figured himself out. Not long after, a horse came in to rig at the dragon end, and then one of Al's favorite buddies joined us, and he was back to being a solid citizen. It's really shocking to me that a horse who was cut so late (just before he came to the US) is so dependent on other horses. It's really interesting to me. Anyway, that was yesterday. Today we entered the ring as a horse was finishing up his turn on the rig. So he started out relaxed, but then that horse left. And Al was very not relaxed. Then a new horse came to rig. But also the goat and a dog came out too. Neither of which is usually a problem for Al. I do think he likes when the goat is around. But the horse on the rig was alternating between being ridiculously lazy and needing some encouragement in the form of lunge whip snaps (not so cool with Al) and then trying out some bronco moves. That coupled with the howling dog (he's an old senile man, not his fault!) and meandering goat left Al very distracted and not terribly settled. Eventually the dog and the goat wandered back out of the ring and the rig horse settled into behaving himself and our ride finished nicely. So I dunno. I'm feeling positive that we're ending each ride on a good note, but I'm a little frustrated that he's still so easily unsettled. But I guess he is who he is, and I just need to keep on keeping on. And doing my best to be patient. 

Shiny did get to lesson last week though! She did her Saturday morning lesson and was a total hoot. She was WILD! But no bucking so that was nice at least... I had to whoa in the lines which is pretty rare for her and she was just absolutely thrilled to be jumping. She has been starting to trip more again though, so I had scheduled her for a shockwave treatment this week too. Doc had to reschedule from during the week, but came Saturday, so that worked out nicely. We were able to lesson before hand, and then she had her shockwave in the afternoon. Nice little Saturday for her! She felt great Sunday for our bareback ride and even better this week. So I'm excited to see how she feels jumping tomorrow. 

All is well with this dude too. He still keeps insisting his retirement is going great. I've stopped correcting him, but boy will he be disappointed come March when the saddle comes back out. He still has some hives, but we did figure out that it was from the shavings. This particular load is nearly done with though, so I'm hoping the next one will be back to the usual stuff. I asked doc about what he thought I should do and agreed with me about not jumping straight to the steroids since he didn't seem uncomfortable from the hives. Instead, he got an Equimune injection which is supposed to boost his immune responses. It's definitely helped tremendously but he's still a bit lumpy. Seems happy enough though. Gave himself a very thorough mud bath today so he's living his best life. 

And that's about all that's happening around here. Oh that and I'm trying to support my shopping problem by selling beaded friendship bracelets. Like the Swiftie ones, but for horse girls. 

Breeches, Boots, Helmet Hair
Jumper, Gallop, Double Clear
Derby, Winner, Champion
Junior, Equitation, Era
Amateur, Horse Girl, Era
Whoa, Pony, Hunter

These sets are available now, but I can also do custom ones. Your barn colors, your horses' names, farm names, blog names, whatever you can dream up in pretty much any color. $6 for a single, $15 for a stack of three. Shipping is extra. Not sure any of you have any interest, I think they're maybe more interesting for the kiddos, but figured I'm not too proud to plug them here on the blog. They make cute gifts too!

Here are the ones I made for me:

Casual, Shiny, Eros (I didn't have numbers yet to do Shiny's show name)
Determined, Backyard, Amateur
Winthrop, Corner, Stable

Okay, that's really it now. Hope you all had a good week and weekend!