Last week at the barn

Tuesday while I was at work I got a call on my cell phone from barn manager Caitlin. A call from the barn always gives my heart rate a little jump; it's not like they call to say what a great day Dude and Bestie are having. Apparently a weather front started to come through right as they began bringing horses in, with a sudden drop in temperature and quite a bit of wind, which totally set some of the horses off. One of those was Bestie, who according to Caitlin, was racing around her field bucking and carrying on with her pasture mate Sadie. Until she fell. Which Caitlin saw. She said Bestie got back up and seemed to walk off normally, if a bit dispiritedly, like "Geez, that was a dumb thing to do."

I walked Bestie that night and she seemed ok, maybe a bit stiff on her left rear leg, which is the side she fell on. Wednesday the horses didn't go out due to the weather and when I arrived after work and looked at her, she had stocked up a little bit but no more than she does normally when in. We ended up giving her bute through Thursday night and I rubbed her down with liniment Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

As luck would have it, former barn manager Emma visited this weekend with her acupuncture needles and I asked her if she would mind checking Bestie over. She didn't detect any soreness that was out of the ordinary and treated Bestie in a variety of spots that Emma described as good for "old ladies." So that's how Bestie became the equine pin cushion below.

Bestie was really good about the whole thing; pretty relaxed. In the photo below you can see one needle near her girth area. She's sort of giving me the look because Emma had tried to connect a little electrical impulse wire to a couple of the needles for a bit extra "oomph" (medical term), and Bestie did not like the feel of the draped wire AT ALL. So Emma didn't pursue that and just let her relax with the needles. She did get pretty snoozy.

Earlier in the week Dude had limboed under his stall guard and taken off down the aisle toward freedom - the side door. I totally panicked because there is still construction going on for the new arena, and it was dark, and if any horse could wander into a construction area, it would be Dude. But luckily, someone had already shut the end door, so by the time I grabbed a bucket with a bit of grain and raced to the end of the barn with his halter, Dude was standing with his  nose pressed against the closed door trying to figure out plan B. Plan B ended up not being too exciting - letting me put his halter on him and lead him back to his stall, where he resumed eating his hay. That happened on the second night of rubbing liniment on Bestie, so maybe Dude felt he had to do something really amazing to get my attention. I guess he's pretty flexible for a 20 year old! Note to self: watch him with the stall guard. We've been down this path before, and he keeps a wide enough spread between limbos - months - to lull me into thinking he's not ever going to do it again.

Dude gets a job

Still giving my knee time off, so no riding time. Gina at the barn came to me with a proposal: she has a new student, brand new, and she was wondering if she could use either Dude or Bestie in her lesson. After thinking about it, and chatting about it in the aisle with editorial commentary from barn manager Caitlin about Bestie's tendency to let loose her inner Arabian, we decided to go with Dude. :)

Wednesday night we saddled Dude up and Gina took him out to the arena to test him. She put him on the lunge line and flicked the whip a couple times to see what he'd do. He barely blinked an eye. Then she got on and rode him around a little bit, while making funny will-this-spook-him movements like hanging off to one side, and waving her arms, and throwing a leg over his withers. No reaction. So he passed the test. I was so proud.

Last night was the night for lesson #1. I didn't go to the barn because of yoga. Pretty much as soon as I got up today, I started wondering how the lesson had gone. I restrained myself until about noon then texted Gina.

Me: Hey Gina, it's Karen. How was Dude last night? Good experience for your student?
Gina: They were sooo great together!! I think he enjoyed it too. Thank you!

Yay! Another proud mother moment! My kid behaved!

And I bet he did enjoy it too. Dude is sort of a crusty character at times, but he has always been happiest when he's in a program, and he's always good with kids. Gina is great at making a fuss over the horses, and I'm sure he likes that. The lesson and another weekly session with Gina will keep him moving and help him start to get back in shape, and that I'll be able to then jump on when my knee heals. Win-win for all.

Shiny ponies

In an earlier post I wrote about switching over Dude and Bestie to a new supplement - staying with HorseTech but going with Reitsport Senior to provide them with a bit more "juice" as they age. Bestie has been on the Reitsport Senior since mid June (full dose by the end of June); Dude has been on a full dose for 2-3 weeks now. This picture isn't that great (dark barn aisle, black horse, inept photographer), but it's clear how shiny her coat is. Someone commented on her beautiful coat a few days ago as I was grooming her, which led me to step back and really look at her. Her cold weather coat has started to come in, so she's gotten darker than she is in the summer, and she IS shiny. Super shiny. I noticed the same thing with Dude, too, this week. He's turned a richer more coppery color, and his coat has a nice sheen to it. Nothing else has really changed with their diet, so I'm happy to credit the Reitsport. :) 

We're doing lots of quality grooming time as I hurt my knee a week ago in hockey. I was going for the puck with someone and ended up doing the splits ... but on my knees. "Pop" - I felt the same sensation as I did 3 years ago during another spectacular fall that landed me with a torn MCL. I'm icing and ibuprofening and it's feeling better than the first go-round, BUT I can't ride. Just the thought of swinging my leg over a horse makes my knee ache. So that's a bummer. I had just gotten back to riding Dude and felt like I was settling into the ol' two horse schedule. Bestie's a scrub grazer so this time of year I spend a lot of quality time picking the burdocks out of her tail. Every day I put conditioner in her tail in hopes that the burdocks won't adhere. It doesn't seem to be working...