Hobby Horse Blog Hop

I haven't done this in a while.  Mostly because I've felt like crap and not even writing is enticing.  That right there should an indication of how crappy I've felt.

Anywhining, I'm going to hook up with Dreaming again for her blog hop.  It's always a ton of fun, so if you want to come join the party, just click the link at the bottom.

1. The big, black beasties have gone back to their home now. I miss having them in the paddock. I've never had a black horse before, and I was in awe of how they glistened in the sun. If you could get another horse, or house pet, what color/breed might you be attracted to?
I'm a bay girl.  I love the bay horses.  And the black ones.  But definitely not white.  That's way too much work, having a white horse.

These are the babies I really wanted, but it wasn't to be...they got sold.

So they're a little muddy and dirty,
but they were beautiful.
I was in love.

She wanted me to come play :)

2. Ugh, I really should stop working on this post and get out and water the trees and our gardens. It certainly isn't a difficult chore, it is just time consuming. What chore(s) do you find distasteful for whatever reasons?
I hate to clean.  And put away laundry.  And clean.  Well, pretty much anything domestic, I despise.

3. Shorter days, cooler nights.... fall is certainly on its way. What are your plans or goals for fall?
I don't have any horse-related goals.  Other than getting the extra sole outta Estes' feet, but that's up to our farrier.  I've got a couple of gun classes scheduled that I'm super excited about.  I'm teaching a Tactical Pistol class in September and taking a Tactical Carbine class in October.  That's pretty much my excitement for the fall.

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Heavy Sigh

Her Highness is at it again.

It's always the end of the season that we have problems.

This time it's not thrush.

It's not sand colic.

It's not her back (anymore).

Because why would Her Highness repeat injuries/illnesses from the past when she can come up with a new way to get out of work?

Our crazy weather has done crazy things to her feetsies.  Her sole has overgrown her hoof walls.  And it's so rock hard that I can't cut it with the knife and the rasp just skitters across it.

*shaking head*

What am I to do with the old girl?

The farrier will hopefully be up next week to get her feetsies in order and he's going to earn every penny.  And then it's back to work for Her Highness.

5 1/2 hours in 15:04 minutes

Mom did a pretty thorough write-up on our long ride the other day.  We re-created our ride from HCR 2 (without the whole GunDiva walking for three miles business) - Mom's got some stunning pictures up, so I thought I'd post some of the video Bill took.

It's kind of long, but the middle part is the pucker-inducing part of the ride.  Some of you might recognize it.

Dumbassery

So.

Know how I was all worried about Estes' arthritis and how much longer I'd get to ride her?

And I was perplexed because it seemed like she went downhill really quickly?  Like, two weeks ago, she was sound and then suddenly she wasn't?

Yep.  I'm an idiot.  No wonder she looks at me with distain sometimes.  It's because I deserve it and I'm an idiot.  Don't know how else to put it.

I've be trying to figure out if she got hurt while we were out, or what I did differently recently and then I remembered this...

That would be a saddle.  A perfectly good Aussie saddle that fits Estes beautifully.

It does not, however, fit me.  Which I should have figured out from my first ride in it, since it gimped me up for two days afterward.

I am such a dumbass.  We *just* did an episode on Horse Master about saddle fit and how it's important to fit both the horse and the rider.  How could I have let that slip my mind?

Oh wait...it's because I'm a dumbass.

Anyway, we had the chiro up on Wednesday and he worked Her Highness over.  He also admonished me that "no more saddles!  Bareback only."

Guess I'd better master my Million Dollar Idea, then, huh?  Still haven't gotten the hang of it.  Mom and Bill are great with it - me, not so much.

Her Highness will get one more back crackin' on Tuesday and we'll be back in business.  I found my Cosequin and started her on it on Wednesday as well, so when I go up on Sunday, she should be good for a short ride just to loosen up.  She can go back to her usual ride schedule of once or twice a week for a couple of hours after Tuesday.

God, I hate it when I do something stupid and hurt my horse.

Ouchie!

Beel and I went for a short ride on Saturday (I know, I know, I've got a lot of other blogs I'm supposed to be writing, but I'll get around to those.  Eventually.).

Beel took Estee out earlier in the week, but only got to the top of the switch-back before he decided she was hurting too much to go for a ride and walked her back.  I know she's got arthritis and I've just been giving her enough bute to make her comfortable until she gets warmed up. Once we get those old joints moving, she feels so much better.  I liken it to the first thirty minutes of my workout - I hate it, hate it, hate it, but then everything loosens up and I'm good to go.  If we don't exercise her, I'm afraid she'll get stove up and we'll all be sad.

I haven't started her on any joint supplements simply because I can't get to Murdoch's before they close or my time is too limited when I'm racing up the mountain for a ride.  After Saturday's ride, though, Mom and I went through a bunch of supplements online and settled on a liquid glucosomine/chondroitin thing-y.  We'll give it two weeks.  If it works, I'll buy it in bulk, if not, we'll try something else.

Anyway, I buted Her Highness and gave her about half an hour for it to kick in, then pulled her to go out for an hour.  Beel finished up his chores just as I was getting ready to mount up and decided to join me.

We've recently had a lot of moisture.  I'm glad of it.  I really am.  Everything is so nice and green and healthy looking.  Except I don't much appreciate the moisture when I'm getting ready to ride.  I waited until the rain stopped, pulled Estee, slapped on a pad and the bareback pad, ran into the house for something and when I came back out, a slow drizzle had started.  That stupid fleece bareback pad just loved soaking up that drizzle, so I felt like I'd just peed myself when I mounted up.  Grrr.

Even though she was hurting, she didn't hesitate to step out on the ride.

This is the trail from the livery to the Hwy.
I don't think I've ever taken a picture of it,
not even when Momma Fargo got ejected from Washoe here.

It looks dreary out, but it was just about perfect.
A nice slow, drizzle and comfortable temps.

I did put a rain slicker on, but only to stay dry.
If it was cold, I would have put on my duster to keep my heat in.

Which trail, Mom?

That might be kinda cool over there.  Can we go?

We're going way over there?

That could be kind of cool.

But this will do, too, I suppose.
*sigh*  *huff*  *sigh*

We chose a fairly easy trail, what used to be the kids' short one-hour ride for the livery, but by the time we got back to the Y headed home, she was hurting a lot.  I dismounted and opted to walk her back.  She was gimpy on the wrong foot.  I'm used to her being gimpy on her club foot, but her other front foot was bothering her, as well as her left hind.  I don't get it.

I walked with her down to the creek crossing at the livery and then I faced a conundrum.  With all of the moisture, the creek is too wide for me to jump across and with all of the livery horses walking back and forth across it numerous times a day, it's a muddy bloody mess.  Beel told me I should re-mount just to cross the creek, but I didn't want Estee to have to carry my weight across and deal with the slippery mud.  Beel tried to convince me to "dead indian" it - lie across Estee's back just long enough to cross, but I thought I might be able to sneak across using the grass along the edge.  He warned me that he'd tried the same thing when he walked her back a couple of days ago and that he had sunk in the mud.

I should have listened.

Damn.  Don't you hate it when your parents are right?

He had a good laugh and I admitted I should have hopped up on Estes for the four steps it would have taken her to get across.

I'm going to have Dr. Dave adjust her when he's up next to see if that helps loosen her hips up and hopefully we'll see some improvement with the supplement.  Until then, no riding of Her Highness for me.  I'll go up on Wednesday for my ride, but Her Highness will get ponied for her exercise, not ridden.  I suspect I'm grounded for at least a couple of weeks until we figure out what's going on with her.  I'll take video on Wednesday and post it.  Maybe you all will have some ideas.

Ditching Work

Not work-work, as I didn't have a class today, but home-work.  I have a ton of stuff to do at home, namely packing for our move, but I ditched out (and felt guilty about it) so that I could get out on a ride.  Her Highness needs her exercise, you know.

I decided to ride in the Aussie saddle again.  It crippled me up last week when I was working at the livery, but thought that maybe the reason why I was all crippled up was because I hadn't ridden in a saddle since last HCR.  I was going to have to put a pad on under the bareback pad anyway, and if I was going to go to that much trouble, I might as well throw the five pound Aussie, right?

I didn't know where we were going to ride, and didn't really care, it just felt so good to be out.

Weird to see a saddle, huh?

Since Mom AND Bill were available to ride, we all went out, which meant Washoe had to be ponied, because he's a cry baby when we leave him behind.

Neither of the gelders look happy with the arrangement.

I had some vague idea of riding up toward the pond, but after we crossed the creek I had a better idea!  We haven't been to the campsite beneath the Goat Trail this year, so that's where we headed.

It's a bit overgrown

And parts of it were brutal, even by our standards.

There was barely a horse-width between the fallen tree and
a wall of boulders.  This just as we're clearing the boulders.

Ouchouchouch...these pines are pokey!

Some breathing room *sigh*

Thanks to all the moisture, the creek was still running beautifully.

Mom got some great pictures and then the batteries died, so there isn't any pictorial proof that we let the horses picnic at the campsite, but we did - honestly!  They were all pretty happy about it, though it was over far too soon according to them.

We retraced our steps and headed back to the lodge.  Little Missy was tuckered out.  We didn't have one single argument about the speed in which we were going to return to the lodge.  She just put one hoof in front of the other.  Before we left, I didn't bute her, because I hadn't intended on our ride to be so tough.  Once she got warmed up, she went great, but as she got tired, she started gimping a little bit.  Arthritis is a bitch, I tell you.

I let her have her head when we got back into the parking lot; usually she "parks" herself at the hitch rail, but today she went to the tack room door, just like she was going to go in the lodge.  She had both front hooves up on the flagstone step and waited patiently for me to dismount and pull the saddle.  So considerate of her to park right next to the saddle racks.  Unfortunately, I couldn't dismount where she parked herself without killing myself, so I made her back down off of the steps.

I started to take her over to the pen, got across the street and decided that I did need to bute her, so we headed back toward the lodge.  And then I got a brilliant idea!  Since she wanted to go into the lodge so badly when we got back from the ride, I'd see if she'd go in through the tack room door.  Sometimes, I don't know where these ideas come from, I really don't.