Yep, OK…I’m going longer between posts! Really haven’t had much to share being stuck due to weather and transportation issues. But now – we are ready to get out there and work again!

We haven’t been doing nothing, just little bits here and there of arena riding, some more time on the pads, and ground work. And, since the truck returned and has stuck around, we finally got to the lesson on trailer unloading I had planned do over the holiday break. Better late than never! It is a skill he needed to learn and now I know he CAN back off, and he knows he can without falling out of the trailer! Aside from being able to be “rescued” on rides if ever needed again, this also means we can be “rescued” if I have truck issues again or just want/need to hitch a ride somewhere.

We’ve had some fun around here – Karate graduation for Doug & Asher, now brown with black belts – they are planning to get their Black Belt in August!
A few more random snow storms and days off work/school. Absolutely crazy busy at work for both of us too so far.

Prophecy is still doing well – the rain rot seems to be gone, and Linda is keeping it bay when it rains in TN (which is also a lot lately!) using his sheet.
Sully had another session with the CST as well as his recheck with Jeannie and Jessica this past week. All in all, he is doing better, no osteo-adjustments needed this time. We re-ran his bloodwork (there were a few items in Nov that raised concern – came back good this time after his 2 week round of antibiotics), and checked his stifles. His left was great (inj in Jan), but the right showed some issues after the flex test so we went ahead and injected that one. It is all probably due to so many years on the track and joints taking a beating per say. He may need this is as maintenance going forward yearly, or only need them a few times ever to get the joints happy again. Lastly, Jeannie brought out her farrier to trim his heels the way she wants to see his hooves to make more frog contact and spread them. His topline has improved in the last month, but he is not quite where we want him weight wise yet (ribs too easily felt/seen) … However, he is now galloping around the pasture like I’ve never seen him do before, so I think he is feeling good!

We were supposed to haul out for a longer ride on Saturday, but of course after 4 nice days of sun it was a cold wet rain most of Friday rendering the idea of the using the park trails sidelined. The weather was nice and sunny for the day, and I ended up spending a good hour getting him groomed and tacked up. Then we headed out to the arena to see how he felt. Looked good lunging, so got on an worked on the gate issue a bit – once we got past it both directions I opened the gate at the other end for us to go out and walk the driveway. So we logged another Mile as we walked our away down the driveway and little bit down the street towards a spot I hope to get him to in the future we can ride alone giving us some power lines rather than just the ring. He did well; certainly no speed award would have been won for a 30 min mile LOL. He would stop and pause, but always continue forward with a little re-assurance that was the way to go.
Slowly but surely we make our way towards our first LD completion goal. I had already decided against the March ride due to winter conditioning issues, that ride has now been rescheduled to fall due to all this rain, so maybe it will be No Frills in April?