T-R-O-T

Maybe the best word I've heard in months (well, you know - aside from "here's your healthy baby! but that's lots of words and TROT is only one).

Prair got a once over while the Vet was looking at another horse and she (apparently) is sound.  SOUND.  sound.  Time for the sound-horse-emoji-praise-jesus-hands!

 

Prair's life doesn't get much more exciting, but we are cleared for five whole minutes of trot work. 

 

In theory we'll do that for two weeks then hopefully go to 10 min of trot work after that.  I know rehab is slow, but this is feeling slow-er than what I was expecting.  Although it's not like we have anything on the calendar so there's no reason to rush anything. 

 

 

In the meantime, in an attempt to be riding-ready (and also to not go totally crazy) I've been streaming every 10 minute Pure Barre/Beach Barre/Booty Barre/Barre3/why-isn't-there-any-wine-at-this-"bar"-barre class that I can find. 

 

My butt and legs are rigid with lactic acid, so hopefully it's doing something productive.

 

 

I'll be at the barn tomorrow for Prair's inaugural trot session, so let's hope she doesn't rocket me to the moon! YAY TROT!

All Quiet

Man. So little to say.

Gus is good.

Prair is walking in circles....

That about sums it up. I keep meaning to play with Hyper Lapse and get some super awesome video of us walking around... And around.... And around. But as it turns out even with a cocktail and some earplugs the mare still requires two attentive hands on the reins lest she decide the door is (once again) a monster or that other horses require shying away from.

I suppose if they are still a touch reactive you know you aren't sedating your horse too much :-/

On the Gus front everything is going well. The program loves him and he's behaving like a gentleman. Just waiting for the results of a vet check to make use he's sound enough. Not actually sure how that will go since we know he's not 100% sound, but we shall see.

At least all the creatures are still happy and cute!!



Gus and his Barn Baby



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Slight disappointments

Uggggh, posting from my phone because the last time I saw my laptop was when I put it on top of my car.

..... And then drove off...

(Wah)

So that's a little frustrating.

Hopefully it self destructed as it fell off on the freeway. But I can't shake the feeling that it softly bounced off on a side street and someone is just loving all my horse photos and geeky spreadsheets.

Anyway. Phone post. Yay.

Prair's checkup yesterday was good I guess. I missed it because of a doctor appointment that ran about an hour late- but really being there is more about my own curiosity- since the vet and trainer pretty much have it covered..

Anyway. Prair got lunged (during which she was a total lunatic which I suppose was to be expected).

She's 100% sound to the right, but still a 1/5 on her LF when traveling left....

So, the prescription is 30 days of tack walking for 30 min (instead of her euro sizer walks).

The idea is that the vet wants us asking for more reach with that LF, without any impact from trotting yet...

Not quite the full green light I was hoping for, but progress is progress so I'll take it!

Today was the first day of tack walking so I pulled on my preggo breeches (so ready for this weight to be GONE) and zoomed to the barn.... Without my helmet (dammit!)

I'm pro helmet anyways, but on a mare who's been stall bound for two months??? Um, YES PLEASE. So i hunted around until I found one to borrow then got to tacking up.



Tack!! For the mare!! (And a helmet for me)

Upon entering the ring, mare's face basically hit the rafters, so I promptly turned around, gave her some don't-hurt-yourself-you-idiot juice and tried again.

Second attempt was much better and we had a lovely 30 min walk. Didn't play too much but varied between a loose free walk and marching forward walk.

So aside from the laptop and continued slow rehab, we are all good.

I got to ride Prair for the first time since March.

And I FINALLY got to sit in that damn new saddle! Whee!




Only one way to get a picture between the ears!!!

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Weight Gain - Gus' Turn

Prairie isn't the only one packing on the lbs, I'm happy to report that Gus is also finally padding his ribs a bit.

The Boy and I went to visit Gus on Sunday in order to give him a few treats and see how he looks now that he's most of his way through his 30 day trial period.

Baby was along for the ride and got her share of horse slobber as well, so really - fun for the whole family.

Magical disappearing ribs

Gus fans will be happy to know that he looks awesome.  Glossy, perky, and finally gaining some of that lost weight back.

They seriously must be bathing him every day, because that horse is CLEAN and anyone who's ever spent any amount of time around Gus know that he is a dirty, dirty gelding.

More importantly though he looks great on the lunge.  He's not miraculously cured, and you can see the stiffness more when he's traveling to the left and that RF has to swing wide, but for Gus, he looks great.  No head bob, lots of energy - all in all what I call a happy boy.  So that's encouraging.

Fingers crossed for Prair's vet visit tomorrow!

Stall Rest... Day who-even-knows-anymore

Prair's pushing close to 60 days of stall rest.  I'd keep count, but without a regular work schedule I hardly know what day of the week it is, let alone anything else of use...

Anyway, baby and I went to see Prair today, and I'm happy to report that both of them were well behaved.  Baby slept in her front pack the whole time and politely saved all her poop for once we got home, and the mare was sweet and snugly and very eager to perform carrot stretches in exchange for.. well, carrots.

I groomed Prair just enough to get hr shine back, which coincidentally is also what it takes to completely cover me (and baby) in dirty-pee-soaked-shaving-horse-dust. Bleck.

But the mare looks well.  She's gained enough weight to warrant a reduction in her pellets (CHUB), but otherwise is just plugging along.  Her demeanor and disposition are significantly more pleasant than mine would be under the same circumstances, which earned her a few extra treats.

Shiny and Round

I tried to backup to get ALL of her in the shot

Backed into corner, butt still too large to fit

Are you guys sick of photos of my horse in her stall yet? Cause I am.

So far all her BoT stuff is wearing well.  I'm pleased with the Quick Wraps.  They are cleaner and in better condition than I would expect for daily use and her legs are shockingly cool under them given their thickness and the 80 degree weather.

But Prair's days of leisure are hopefully about to end.  Vet is back on Tuesday to take a peek at her under saddle and hopefully we get the green light to start back to work. Which means that I might get to ride the mare for the first time since MARCH.  Let's not count how long it's been since that has happened, since we've already established that counting is not my current strong suit.

Happy Weekends!

Mutton Bustin 2.0 (or put a god damn helmet on those kids)

The blog radio silence may be best explained by having one horse on stall rest and another in a 30 day trial of sorts, but since I can usually babble endlessly about random horse stuff - the real reason was that the fam and I spent the better part of the week mostly unplugged over in Idaho.

The highlights of our holiday weekends spent in the Mountain Time Zone always include a trip to the local rodeo.  

(that's a kid.  and a pony.)

I love rodeos.

Like, really, really love rodeos.  

I've never participated in them, or really learned much about any of the intricacies surrounding the sport, but hot diggity, I love stomping my feet, drinking beer I wouldn't have even touched in college and watching good cowboys and quarter horses do their thing.

I especially like the fun "pre show festivities" that usually kick off the evening.  In fact, if we miss the mutton bustin (putting a toddler on a sheep and seeing how long they can hang on, for those who haven't witnessed it) - I sorta feel like we miss the main event.

Most people stick around for the Bull Riding as the main event - but I love the toddlers (and their varied enthusiasm for the whole process) and the totally freaked out, rather adorable, woolly sheep.

This time, I noticed a new section in our "program" that simply said "mini broncs."

No explanation, no photos, just "mini broncs" - right in between tie down roping and breakaway.

About halfway through the tie down ropers I noticed some action down in the chutes and assumed they were loading the horses for the saddle bronc riders, but when I took a look, I saw PONIES loaded in the chutes not big rough stock horses.

PONIES

IN THE CHUTES.

My brain immediately solved the "mini bronc" mystery and I was extremely excited to say the least  Kids, on rodeo ponies instead of sheep.  

Amazing.

But as soon as the first kid came out of the chute, my stomach curdled a bit.  

See, with mutton bustin the sheep are relatively harmless.  They typically just run like mad to the other end of the arena and the kids sorta bop along holding on for dear life until they (slowly) slide off and plop the (short) distance to the ground.  Also, Sheep are relatively small and their hooves don't do as much damage should one accidentally hit one of the kids.

Mini Broncs were a totally different story.

For one thing, the ponies are in full saddle bronc tack - meaning, in addition to the bare bones saddle and stirrups, they were also wearing a bucking strap, which I'm assuming these ponies are not used to wearing, resulting in insanely pissed off ponies.

Prior to witnessing this event, I sorta expected Mini Bronc riding to look like this:

Small kids, on small ponies (or even minis) jiggling around while a pony runs aimlessly around the ring.

But instead, most of the Mini Bronc rides looked like this:

12 and 13 year olds who (clearly) don't ride getting their shit tossed by really, really mad ponies.  A few wore helmets, most didn't.

Just as I was started to get seriously concerned for the well being of these kids, the last pony and cow... kid? (do we call them cow kids?) loaded up and got ready.  That little dude RODE THAT PONY.  both his parents were competing that night which made me think this guy might have some actual bull riding experience, but no matter - I was impressed

I was also impressed that he was wearing a protective vest, but horrified that there was no helmet!??

What the crap people? who puts their child on an intentionally agitated pony without a helmet for their brains.  Ponies do enough damage without trying to piss them off and kids get enough injuries even with safety gear.  

I mean, wow.

Has anyone else ever seen this?  It was a new experience for me....