Approaching "Normal"

Yesterday, was trim day.

I arrived at the barn and was pleasantly surprised that H and C had brought all the horses up to the arena for us! So it literally took no time to catch Moon.

JOKE!

Bugger. 

The little bugger ran away from me, sparking the herd into a rip-roar around the ring. Unimpressed, I chased him off a few times until he stood like a gentleman for me to clip the lead on. He can be such a brat (and I love it).

I should mention, he also took the time to jump one of the x-rails still out as he made his first mad-dash around. Silly pony. Silly jumping pony.

You'll recall, his ugly leg wound. Yes, he's still running and jumping like a moron. Can't hurt too much anymore, can it? : P

Healing rather nicely. Thanks H, for all the help!

The farrier trimmed him up, commenting on how nice his hooves were looking. With the hot dry weather, a lot of horses are cracking, splitting and chipping away their hooves. Mr. Moon has a couple vertical striations, but none of them are through the hoof wall nor splitting out. Just nice rock solid feet, holding their shape better then they ever have.

Farrier confirmed that he likely did blow an abscess out his coronary, though it's already starting to grow a bit down the hoof wall. She said it was a pretty small one, and really, with his other lameness, it wasn't really noticeable. He certainly hadn't seemed to be in pain prior to his scrape.

You probably can't really see it, but the abscess was there on the left. Trust me. ; )

Wish I knew the root cause, but such is life.

After his trim I took him into the ring and lunged him. Yes, stalker-N (you know who you are), I lunged him. No, it was not pretty, so I'll probably hold off on the mounted shooting for now. ; ) But he did manage to walk-trot around me in a 15 m circle, only once or twice stopping to stare in at me.

Going right, he actually looked nearly back to normal. Going left, there was a slight nod if you really squinted. His canter had looked nice earlier and he was sound at a walk. I was also lunging in the deeper sand, so I'm confident he's nearly back to normal. 85% perhaps?

I think he'll survive...

So this weekend I'll just stick to practicing our loading, and give him a little more time to heal. I'll be away next weekend quading in some beautiful country, so if I can get out three times next week, I'll just put some light walk-trot work on him. Then we'll have one week to get ready for...

GYMKHANA!

Yup. We signed up to do the horse events (Stake race, Quad poles, Flag, Keyhole and Poles, Egg & Spoon, Ride & Run, Mailbox, Clothing Race, Walking Race) and I'm really looking forward to it.

I believe this will be our first "hauling", since if he refuses to get back into the trailer, I can always just ride him home!

I'm a little nervous, but will pull out the barrels, tires and mail-box this week and start getting him used to the items. Worst case, or any case, we focus on the experience, more then the competition.

And I'm super excited!

After Moon finished his supper, I put him away (with a kiss on his schnoz) and packed up a couple of grooming items for the trailer. It was time to put some finishing touches on it!

If he wasn't sunk into the sand, you'd notice that his tail now reaches past the ground! LOVE! Plus the dapples!

(please ignore The Big K, who's pooping in the background)

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I trimmed away the plastic that was stuck in the caulk, vacuumed the whole trailer, installed the rubber mats, greased the divider pins (ick), lubed the rear door handles, added little foam blocks to anything that would bang around, and packed up my storage bins with all my necessary trailer supplies!

Four things left: 1) The interior light...BF got home late last night. 2) The clearance light (will do when we hook up to haul out) 3) The jack wheel which the BF is modifying today (I just got him the measurements), and 4) The hook for the grooming bag, which I'm stopping by Princess Auto today at the FAR end of town to hopefully buy.

While I'm at it, I want to buy two wheel chalks, some magnetic hooks and magnetic lights (to put under the tack area). And then really, it's done. ; )

...kinda...

I'm wondering if I should sew up some breast bumpers...not that they're "necessary" or they need to go in before I start using the trailer, but...

;  )

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Of course, I need to thank everyone for the compliments on the Moon-Mobile. : ) I'm obviously a bit prideful over it, but I do appreciate the fact that everyone thinks it turned out! Now if only I could keep it poop-free... ; )

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So that's life. Next week things will be back to normal, with the exception that I'll have a horse trailer on-site and will be free to roam.

We've got plans to get into our next fun show, we're hoping to convince H to go for a little jump course with us once we're sound again, and I really need to find another project ; )

Love this boy...even if he kinda looks like a donkey in this picture ; )

Happy riding folks!