Angry Danimal

Poor Dan. Poor me. 

Tuesday it rained ALL day and I had my doctors appointment, so we didn't ride then. And then on Thursday I would have ridden but both Kelli and I messed up on the schedule so I had to add in two clients, with 8 horses total, so I couldn't ride Thursday. I guess I could have that evening, but I was sooooo tired of being hot and sweaty and tired. And then Dan was a total butt. I went to go feed and he was just in a foul mood... foul!! He was biting the air.... biting the stall wall. Just cranky! So after I fed I locked him in his stall so he could eat and Fleck wouldn't steal his food. I thought that maybe he was cranky because Fleck hasn't been going to the front field at all lately, so I walked their hay down there and when I came back, Dan was all pissed off that I had locked him in and was kicking his door. I let him out and he came exploding out of his stall, legs a flying. Then he pissed off down to the fence, then back up... mad and squealing and kicking towards Emma. So I put Fleck's halter on and took him down to the front field and Dan came barreling past us. They both found the hay but Dan even ate that angrily, pawing at the ground and just chewing angrily. Sigh...  I hung out for a minute and then let them be. I'm so sad for him. I don't know if he's pissed because he hurts... pissed because he can't do what he wants to do... pissed because he just needs to work and work off some steam.. pissed because he's hungry for grass because Fleck is being a lazy bum...  I don't know how to help him... I can't even figure out what the problem is. Sigh..

So... Friday I had to work all day and he seemed back to his normal self, but I got my butt up extra early to take him Saturday morning to go ride. We did a quick hack... 45 minutes, including two 3 minute trot sets - but we stuck to the trails and didn't do the arena. He felt great... almost power trotting but now I'm wondering if he's power trotting because he feels good and is happy to be out... or because he doesn't want to sit and push so he's just flinging himself along with his front end. :( But.. we both felt better after our ride. 


And then Sunday.... I just didn't have it in me to ride. I spent the day purging the house, filling the dumpster, bush hogging the fields, cleaning out the old barn. And I was hot and sweaty and Dan was hot and sweaty, and.. he's lame, so what's the point? Maybe I'm making him worse. :( 

So.. yeah... But it was a nice ride Saturday. We had fun. We forgot he was ouchy. I forgot my life is chaotic. 

Suck it 2020

So.... Dan and I did a 15 min walk hack warm up today. Then we went into the arena and did some lateral work. We basically walked and did turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, leg yield, half pass, shoulder in, haunches in, and that was it. Once each direction. And he was lovely! It all felt very correct and true. Except at the very end of it, his tongue came out. Hmmm.... That's alarming, because I'm beginning to figure out that the tongue out means he hurts. :( 

And sure enough, when we picked up the trot... he's lame. Like... lame in both directions... both hinds.. I thought. I guess maybe the front end lameness wasn't there.. or it was, but it was truly hind end?? 

Why??!?!  What the frickety frack is wrong with my horse?? Why can't I make him better? Why can't anyone make him better. :( 

Sigh... so we went for a cool down hack and cry. 

Foggy morning and 6 minutes!!!!

Today was a foggy monring and while it was a little humid, it wasn't hot. We got up and went riding because Mike and I spent the rest of the day packing, packing, and packing! It was a good ride. We just hacked and then we got to do 6 minutes of trotting!!!! We did two sets of 3 minutes. :) Yay. Dan had fun. At the end we finished in the XC field and there were some other people out there schooling so Dan got a little animated and got bouncy. He trotted a bit all balled up and he felt great!

Purging, purging, purging.....

Nice Hack

Today was a good day. Mostly... it was highly stressful move wise, but... we'll ignore that for now. 

It was almost cool this morning!!! It got hot later in the day and was even hot when we finished, but it wasn't miserable! We put on the jump saddle and went for our walk. We did 3 straight minutes of trotting today instead of two 1.5 minute sets just because he was game and the footing worked out. So then we walked the rest of the time and when we got back to the arenas.... we went in and did literally 3/4 of a circle tracking left. And he was SOUND!!!! At least for that part. :) Maybe it would have shown up had I done more but last time I felt it immediately and I didn't want to push it. I figured I would do a tiny bit of walking in the arena to start to strengthen those tendons and ligaments again since we've done so little in there but not do much trotting until we're farther along. So yay!

At least there's that. :) 

3 minutes and a pool party

Did our hack with our 3 minutes of trotting. Still felt great. No shenanigans. I told him we would go meet Indi for a swim and when we first got out in the XC field heading towards the lake he stopped and neighed at the top of his lungs "INDI!!!!!". Hee hee. But first we did our hack. Then we went back to the trailer to change into our swimsuits. :) I pulled his bridle and saddle and put on the swim bridle and the bareback pad and pulled off my boots and socks. :)

Great day and great weather and great friends!