Frady Cat

 Danimal!! You best be careful.. you might lose your bad ass eventer card! 

I couldn't help myself and decided to take him for a walk about today. He does need to do his rehab! It was still icy on the roads this morning and there was still snow, but... by 1:30ish the sun was out and things were melting. At least in the sun. Although it was still barely 34 degrees with a windchill of 30. But, the roads were mostly dry so I figured I'd give it a shot. Besides.. they were clearly bored! 

I had gone out earlier this morning because while I was chatting on the phone I noticed that Fleck was laying down in the field. And Lyric was practically nosing him... and Funny was close.. And then Dan walked up. I knew Fleck was alive because he was lifting his head up every now and then, but... maybe he was stuck? Colicky? Regardless, the heathens were surrounding him, so.. I figured I should investigate. Of course as soon as I headed out there he got up. Poor guy.. was just trying to nap I guess and the heathens were bored. Dan came up to me and grabbed my jacket. He just held it for a bit but then he started tugging. Then he grabbed my sleeve. So I walked off a bit. Then I jogged and he trotted up after me. But then he wouldn't play with a stick. Ha ha. He's not a dog Holly! Then he went and rolled. And then he came at me with his teeth bared! I'm pretty sure it was just play because he retracted well before he got close to me, but I did chase him off anyways. Then I found the sheet he shimmied out of last night and he entertained himself with that while the girls harassed me. Funny played with my hat and Lyric mugged me for cookies. Sillies! So yes... he needed to go for a ride. At that point though the arena was completely covered in snow still!

Anyways... I went in and had lunch and then went back out to get Dan. I groomed him and he's shedding like crazy! But despite being dirty and hairy, he's pretty shiny! He wasn't too grumpy for currying but not a huge fan of the sof brush. He didn't mind the shedding blade interestingly enough. I put the bareback pad on him and bridled him up with his nicely warmed up bit. We headed out towards the lake. He was driving me bananas because he had to stop and sniff everything... stop and stare... Then when we got to Tom's house, the dogs were out and distracting. So we had to stop and stare at them. Then we walked 5 feet, then stopped again. And then, we saw Brooke walking her dog up by the tennis courts and he had to stop and stare at her. And then his heart started pounding and he tried to spin and bolt a time or two. Dude.. come on!! You have pads on all four, you're rehabbing, I'm on blood thinners, it's cold and potentially icy... and it's a person and a dog! We even chatted and she slowly kept coming and he threatened to bolt about 3 times before she finally got close enough that he chilled out and then tried to sniff her dog. Seriously Daniel... you're not usually this silly. We tried to continue on but he was not having it, so I gave up and just walked back towards home with Brooke. Which was nice.. it was nice to chat with her and catch up. But he was still being kind of silly and spooky and his tongue had come out when he was freaking out about her and then when I tried to carry on. Sigh.. But we walked past the house with her and then Dan started to get a little bouncier as we got towards the edge of our property line, so I decided to bail and head back. Brooke came with us and then we headed home and she carried on. 

I decided to take him to the arena to check it out and besides.. we had not done our 30 minutes! He had to stop and stare at Jean's horses too. This was the longest 30 minute walk!! We finally made it to the arena, which was still frozen on the one long side. But the majority of it was rideable. At least at the walk. We just did a few laps, walked through the ground poles 3 or 4 times, and did some leg yield. And his tongue came out again. Sigh... I don't know if it's pain at this point, or just anxiety. I suppose it's anxiety when he was upset earlier about the dog and Brooke, but then... was it pain in the arena? Anticipation of pain? Ugh. 

We headed back home and as we were about to cross the gate at the end of the driveway, he saw the statues and freaked out and almost spun and bolted. Dude! For real! It's the same exact statues that you've walked past repeatedly! Even 10 minutes ago. I finally got frustrated enough that I just got off and walked him past them, telling him how silly and ridiculous he was. (Did I mention I had a migraine brewing, had been taken off birth control pills cold turkey, and was upset about my friend passing away... so I think there was a lot of anxiety/grief/pain/hormones going on). 

So yeah... didn't exactly help my mood today. But, we did it. And I am grateful that I got to ride him again, even if it wasn't the most fun ride. It was nice to be back on his back again after being in Florida for 5 days.