Oof, summer hit us like a ton of bricks, not gonna lie. Everything was going so well and so smooth right up until Charlie's tangle(s) with high tensile wire fencing, womp.
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| "where have you been???" -- Mikey |
It worked out tho bc damn, while overall the year has been remarkably mild... August was decidedly less so. And true to the norms in this part of the world, rain has been increasingly scarce while big biting flies descended with a vengeance.
Let's just say --- it's been a tough month for horse feet.
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| my beautiful silly horse, and a water tank |
Charlie lost his first shoe in 2 years, which you already knew. But then promptly lost
a second shoe (same friggin foot too, ugh) a week later. Right when we were finally getting back into doing things...
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| "crisis averte-waitomgshit--f*ck nobody saw that, right?" |
It was actually during a ride, wherein I finally took Charlie into an actual proper arena and let him basically drag my ass around all the little cross rails and teeny jompies set up for camp kids. It was GLORIOUS, right up until I dismounted and saw that bare foot. UGH.
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| obvi around these parts there will always be wound pics. looks pretty good at ~4wks tho, no? |
Given that it was the same foot that had already lost that shoe, was a fairly recent trim, and he was barefoot for about 3ish days.... Eh, I figured I didn't really need to know the answer to "
Will he be sore?" and just let him chill.**
(**Or, uh, NOT chill -- as you can clearly tell from those water tank gifs above that homeboy has juussssst a little too much energy at the moment!)  |
| ooooooooh more EXCITING pics tho omg! i showed up to the weekend vacay early for FEI dressage steward duty, doing my favorite thing: bossin' around the olympians at Great Meadow International! |
It worked out anyway since I was out of town for the weekend for Great Meadow International! I haven't seen my longtime horse friend (who left Maryland a few years back) since before covid, so we decided to do a weekend getaway meetup at a cute Airbnb in Warrenton, VA and catch the 4* at GMI while we were at it. So Charlie could get a few extra days off haha.
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| plus obvi sample the local flavors. 1,000% recommend this winery bc omg LAKE |
I've gone to GMI almost religiously for the last couple years, but it's a helluva day drive so this whole Airbnb situation was actually straight up amazing. Plus we got to enjoy the cute little town and local sights and scenes -- including a
very pleasing bottle of Pinot Gris at the Winery at Sunshine Ridge, complete with shady + breezy lakeside picnic tables. Yes. Please.
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| let's find a way to get a lakeside winery right up in here too, yes? |
Normally for a lot of our local big International FEI shows, I go alone so I can hustle all over creation taking footage for the video compilations I like making. That's..... kinda a tough thing to do with company unless said company is a very specific blend of my kind of crazy LOL.
So I didn't do all that this time... and... It was honestly pretty nice haha, just sitting back and enjoying the show!
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| silly sippy cup souvenirs!! sure they're from walgreens LOL but the memories are #4eva |
The weather was a bit atrocious too, not gonna lie, and GMI, for all it's beauty, kinda just caters to the VIPs. There's literally no seating and no shade unless you cough up the $$ for a tailgating tent. It's cool, tho. We were prepared and made our own accommodations and had a swell ol' party out of it all.
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| brought souvenirs home for charlie too omg |
Finally, tho, it was time to return to reality. Which, gratefully in my world, includes getting back to our friend Charles!
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| "what the fuck is wrong with you tho?" -- charlie, for sure |
His leg is looking really good, finally. And despite all my paranoia, I'm actually thinking it might not scar that badly after all. Still to be seen tho...
More importantly -- omg we're really riding again! It's been honestly about a solid month off for the big guy, despite last week's false start before the second thrown shoe... But he feels really good. Like, REALLY. There's a little more 'bounce per ounce' in his trot than I'm used to, and he's a tad sassy -- but happy.
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| okie dokie, back to your regularly scheduled programming --- RIDING OMG!! |
We cantered out and around the xc fields the other day just to stretch him out, and I couldn't resist aiming him at a little coop -- which naturally he loved <3 More recently we went into the dressage court for a "real(ish)" ride, just to sorta see where he's at. And, believe it or not, it turns out, yerp, the horse is still trained lol.
So I'm excited. Maybe the little summer recess was perfect -- a guilt-free excuse to sit out the heat and hard ground and biting flies?? Fall is my favorite anyway haha. And it's so nice to have a horse feeling fresh and rested and eager for adventure!!
Fingers crossed we get that opportunity soon :) Anybody else losing shoes? Or enjoying a late-summer breather? Or maybe you have something exciting on the calendar?
Since you asked, Olive is currently barefoot and not by choice. She's made a habit of losing one shoe right at the end of the shoeing cycle, but this time, she did it in two weeks. Shoer comes tomorrow, and we need to talk.
ReplyDeleteugh Olive.... Charlie went through a phase like that when i first had him where he was just walking out of his shoes every 2-4 weeks bleh... i'm hoping what he's doing right now is a fluke!! fwiw i find that in our part of the world, fly boots really help by reducing stomping -- the shoo fly boots in particular seem to fit a lot of horses and don't rub or irritate the skin. not sure how Olive would feel about that tho!
DeleteGlad to hear that his leg is healing up AND that y'all are rested and recovered after the breather. Sometimes I feel like that's really necessary at the end of the summer, which is typically really brutal here because of the heat
ReplyDeleteagreed.... i'm not very good about taking voluntary breaks, but always end up appreciating the rest after one of charlie's little dings. and his timing this time really was fantastic -- we didn't miss any shows or anything, just the gross hotness! fine by me!
DeleteThe legs are healing soo well! We took our unplanned breather at the beginning of summer, but end sounds better (got it, Ben?). I hope the shoes go back to being a non-issues for Charlie though.
ReplyDeleteugh charlie's feet do not look wonderful right now but they've definitely looked much worse in the past so... eh, we'll see. a lot of horses at my farm are just kinda struggling with ground conditions rn, i think it's just that time of year.... here's hoping both our boys are done with the shenanigans for at least the foreseeable future!!
DeleteYay! I'm so glad Charles is feeling better finally! Also yes, Eros lost a shoe last week. I never even found it. Which, he turns out in the ring, so where could it possibly have gone? They usually turn up when we drag, but it's been dragged twice and still no shoe. A real mystery!
ReplyDeleteYay he's feeling better! My best outlook right now is that my horse is not nearly as lame as she was in April, so it means things are finally healing. We've only just been cleared for tack walking, which is better than in hand!
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