Bubblewrap Please

The weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days so yesterday I decided to ride Johnny and get him in the arena. I got him out and noticed a large hunk of hair missing on his butt. Apparently one of the girls got hateful with him. It was a little tender to the touch but pretty superficial and decided we should be fine to ride after convincing him the medicine I was putting on him was not a flesh eating monster. Luckily he got distracted by some leftover grain that was on the ground in the round pen and I was able to doctor it pretty easily. I started lunging him and noticed he was pretty obviously off but it didn't appear to be coming from the hip where his combat wound was. I figured it might be a hoof issue, possibly a stone bruise and kept lunging to see how it would go. He never got better but never got worse, I checked all his feet and he didn't seem tender or sore. I started grooming him trying to figure out what he was off from and realized every time I touched his shoulder with the curry he gave me the stank eye. I ran my hand over it, no heat, a little puffy and some definite threats of violence coming from Johnny. I poked it with my finger and sure enough Johnny pinned his ears and moved sideways. Hmmmm, appears to be a pulled muscle, I'll keep an eye on it and make sure it's nothing serious. In the mean time I asked Heather to slap some mineral ice on it for me, I didn't have any gloves left and I'm really allergic to the stuff for some reason....but man it works wonders with the horses. We then had to again convince Johnny it was good for him, it smells a bit like Ben-Gay so I don't really blame him for trying to get away from it, finally rubbing him down with it really good. I then added a low dose of Bute to his bucket and called it a day for him. I was disappointed with the lack of ride and he'll need a few days to recover......I wish I could just wrap them all in Bubblewrap!

On a bright note, Jazzy's cough seems to be subsiding again and Faith has been able to ride her several times and I used her in a lesson on Monday. She did great and was a complete angel. Her lungs are still sore and she gets wore out pretty quickly so after lunging her she's usually only good for about 20-30 minutes of light riding, but she is enjoying be back out and doing something. She sees my truck pull in and waits at the gate for someone to come get her.

Today is rainy and this afternoon is suppose to be severe thunderstorms with high winds and hail.....ugghhh...so I've moved all my students to other days and am stuck at the house. Faith's new/used saddle came in today and I really like it! It's built nice, a gorgeous color, the leather is super soft and quality. I hope Faith likes it and fits in it well and it fits Chip. We have it for a one week trial then can decide whether to keep it or not. Faith has a show this weekend and I am hoping the weather will cooperate and she can get one practice ride in it before having to show in it. I hate to send her into a show (even a schooling one like this one) in a new/different saddle. I guess we will see what she thinks of it.

Setbacks

As I got Pilgrim out for our morning workout this morning, I find myself wondering if we'll ever be ready for a show if we keep having interruptions in our training. While grooming and getting ready to polo wrap him, I found another injury. He hurt his back leg on his pastern. Nothing serious, but there was a little swelling and warmth, so I decided to play it safe and doctor it, give him a little bute, and give him the day off. He also had some cuts and bruising on his gums and lips from playing bitey face with CJ. I'm going to recheck him tomorrow and hope he is healed enough to work.

Pilgrim's newest injury

Don't ask me how he did this

Oowww! Somebody get him some toothpaste! Yuck!

I have gotten the newest horse in training out, Lulu, the last two days. She has been surprisingly calm, sweet, and smart. She has wonderful ground manners, is not spooky, saddles fine. I rode her yesterday with Heather leading with no issues and rode today on our own. We only walked since we weren't even sure if she was broke when we got her in, but so far has done great and has nice brakes, just sit and say whoa. After watching her movement on the ground free longeing her she looks trotty but we think she may be a racking horse. We look forward to seeing what all she knows. I'll try to get pictures of her up soon.

Unfortunately MayMay had a real setback in her training. This is her last week and we were hoping she would really do well. She had several good days, and today started well with her really listening and being good on the ground and longeing. When I mounted her, one of the new boarded horses started calling in her pasture and she went into a total panic, running me into the side of the arena and then throwing herself backwards. We had just worked through this issue last week! I ended up having to dismount and take her into the round pen, get back on and try to work it out. Grrr. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

Dwight on the other hand was very excited. With the weather being warm enough, we could finally take his remote control boat he got for his birthday out on the lake! 

Chuck teaching Dwight how to steer

Dwight's boat

Dwight takes over

Look out geese!

Trooper keeping a close watch