All caught up

Today was nothing but full on. I am totally shattered and running on empty right now!

I was dropped at the barn at 8.30am. The horses got rems. Without internet access, I missed Susan's email to me regarding timing and plans for the day, so I was about to get on Chico when Peggy called me at 9.00am. She suggested - what else - that I ride Chico to start ;) so I replied "guess who is tacked up and ready to go!"

Chico has had the best part of a week off. Lana did ride a couple of times and Karen did work him, but he is getting WAY too much grass for his work level and looks positively rotund. Despite his time off, he was very good for me once I unstuck his shoulders. Peggy arrived as I was getting on so watched me process what I needed to do with him. It boils down to me learning coordination (haha!) of the various parts. Even though I don't have "it" yet, I am managing to get some really nice stuff from him. From the out, the transition to the in needs to be a little softer, with a little more support and connection on the outside rein, then he needs a come on. Yes, I've said this before. Yes, I understand it. It's just the doing it a million different ways, quickly (why spend half my ride getting the horse through when I could spend five minutes!).

Peggy raced for her flight to a two-day clinic. I soaked Sully's feet with White Lightning, groomed and tacked Fonteyn. The farrier called to say he was running late which suited me fine: I had time to groundwork and ride Fon, without rushing. Karen was riding Bracken while I started Fon off and I asked her to stick around while I rode, so I could be sure I was doing the right thing for the horse. Fon did really well! I need to do the same things with myself as I do on Chico, but in a much more subtle way. Fon only needs the inside knee to open and that thigh to think up, to walk off, whereas Chico usually needs a wobble from both sides.
Fon finds it tougher to the right so I tend to get myself muddled up more that way, then default to left, which flows easily. So, I need to focus on travelling to the right to strengthen her and get her more balanced. All in all, it's still the same out, in, on that I have been doing.

As Fon was being turned out, the farrier arrived. Karen had Bracken so I grabbed Chico on my way back up to the barn. Those two only needed to be trimmed so the process was short. Sully, on the other hand, took half the afternoon: first, I showed the farrier the photos I'd taken when I arrived (before I pulled his shoes), and the xrays from October last year which were sent to Peggy just this week. Sully got a lameness workup so the farrier could see where he was at. Then came discussion about which options were appropriate, or not, for this horse and the plans for him going forward. Finally, he got to work on Sully's feet. He appreciated the trim I did and thought it was appropriate for the situation (take that with a grain of salt - I don't think I did the horse justice with the trim, as I was trying to do the bare minimum and coax the horse along to today's farrier appointment where he'd likely get shoes - shoes aren't easy to apply when a horse has had a proper barefoot trim, due to the lack of excess wall). In any case, that was his view and it's fine. He didn't want to nail anything and didn't feel a metal shoe was appropriate, and thought boots probably aren't ideal due to the shape of the hooves and the fact they have a lot of decontracting to do. So, he use a casting material (similar to the stuff used when you break/fracture a limb - a mesh, soaked + 'activated' with water, then sets hard within a short time) and a rubber sole pad. It was interesting to see the process (I'd probably never go this route with any of my horses, even if we had a competent local person offering the service).

Fon was a piece of cake in comparison, with shoes taken off, re-shaped, a different pad and then re-set. Susan collected me, we went past my temporary place to collect my stuff, Central Market for a quick dinner fix and now here I am, catching up on everything. I have my own bed in Peggy's office, my own bathroom, I've done a load of washing (which is still in the dryer, oops) and now it's time to sleeeeeeeep.