The highs and lows

Life is full of highs and lows, and there is saying in endurance that just getting to the ride is half the battle! I bet you can imagine from that statement alone how many ups and downs there are with horses 😒

At the moment I feel pretty low and defeated, I can’t walk up to Sully and halter him in the field anymore. He has become increasingly more difficult to catch since the summer, and really threw us for a loop with the last farrier appointment, acting totally out of character uncatchable until we had both the other 2 done and tied up. The past year with them at home has been great; I am able to walk out anytime and groom and whatever. But that also means I haven’t needed to use a halter unless there is a reason for it (farrier, vet, or wanting to go for a ride). I’m surmising that has created a bit of gap for him and I; I used to halter him often and go do things when he was boarded, now I have less of a plan for most days when heading outside and he’s gotten to be “in charge” from his point of view; now he is not too happy I have realized the issue and am working to take charge again. Jaime (HopeHorsemanship.com) came over to help us work on this one weekend and we found a few areas that are not as good as they used to be (aspects of leading & ground work), so I’ve got work to do. I look forward to our clinic in May with Emily Kemp, hoping we have this haltering thing worked out by then 🙃

In addition to that, Sully is having some stifle issues. We went to Jeannie for a checkup earlier this month and she concurred they were bothering him, the left more than right, and his patellas are sticking (not surgery worthy sticking, but sticking). We opted to inject both again (like was done in 2019) and see how he does before exploring any more medical options (PRP, estrogen, etc). I took him out as directed that weekend and while I could say he felt better, he was not 100% so I opted to pull out of the No Frills 30. I ended up drag riding instead for a short loop with Jeannie, so she got to see how he moved at a ride. She wants me to work on getting better rounding and more of his hind-end under him – which is something we have been working on the past 3 years as it is counter to how he learned to move while racing with a check rein. I’m exploring places to haul to and take lessons since I don’t have a great place to ride at home, and after a month or two of that we are to go back for a recheck. We’re hopeful he & I can get to OD in June, but my ride plans are completely flexible as I want to ensure I have him to ride for years yet.
The drag ride itself was a new experience; Sully definitely still thought we should be up with the next group, and I had one issue on trail where he surged ahead. I waited it out for his brain to come back around and then dismounted and walked back to our team of riders, then promptly put him in the back so we could stick together for the rest of the loop!

We rode up to the tower you can see at the ridge line, then back

Future is doing well, but battling hoof abscesses. We found one on his left front at his first farrier appointment with my guy, but is was too high up to relieve. I Epsom gel wrapped him, he gimped around a few days, and then was mostly normal. Two weeks later he came up nearly 2-legged lame because not only did that front hoof start bothering him again, but the left hind hoof too! The next morning it took 10min to get him from the far corner of the field up to his pen for breakfast so I left him locked in the feed pen and went out for more wrapping supplies. I managed to get a wrap on both feet and put him back out. Gimped another few days, then went blazing through the pasture bucking one evening so back to a waiting game to see if they rear their head again or have actually popped. He has so many old tracks/abscess marks I’m not sure if they both popped through or not, but at least he can walk and run around comfortable again. He is gaining weight still, but has a ways to go yet before I’d ride him, so maybe I can get Skyler on him some more to walk around if his feet stay good. His beta halter came back “fixed” to his size, I have all the pieces to finish her reins, and he now has his own purple rope halter and Treeline lead rope (from KnottyGirlz.com) to start some ground work and see what he knows there.

Prophecy is his goofy self and doing well. He came out of winter with rain rot again, despite diet tweaks. At this point I’m thinking it may just be a part of his IR, and that I don’t use a water filter on the hose in winter so may need to up his Cu/Zn next winter to further counter the Iron levels. He and Future (who came with rain rot from the pen) both got a bath Sunday afternoon with Equiderma to treat it and help with shedding. They will get another bath on the next hot day as there is still more grime to remove.

I got the call my ‘new’ trailer is all fixed up, and plan to pick that up this week. Skyler is super excited to start working on it together. I have lots of ideas I’ve been saving and waiting for it to come home so I can take measurements for what needs it and start working! I took my trusty CM to No Frills, which reminded me of how much work I have ahead of me with the new one and figuring out how to store things! lol I’ve had that trailer 6yrs and it has been an ever evolving ‘home’ for camping by myself.

The kids are doing well and got a visit from Grandma & Bruce for a few days at spring break (they drove from TX). They are both in soccer and running us around crazy too. Skyler is on a great team this spring with friends and learning so much from this coach (same Asher had when his team won the Sunburn Tournament) and having lots more fun playing at games than the fall. Asher’s Challenge team is still having issues learning to play as a TEAM, but this last game was really well matched (another newer team vs playing teams that have been together a few years) and they worked together much better!

Loki has made it through another winter (we really weren’t sure) and Dash is constantly hungry since coming out of hibernation. He no longer runs away when we watch him eat so he is more amusing now 🙂

All in all, the highs outweigh the lows, and I’m thankful for them. I’m even thankful for the lows, as it wouldn’t make the highs as much fun without them right?!