one day my prince will come

Charlie is the sort of horse who wears his heart on his sleeve. You never really need to wonder how he feels, bc he will tell you all about it haha. He's a communicative kind of creature, ya know?

Which is part of why it's been so hard to see him deal with all these hoof issues this year. I just hate seeing him so uncomfortable!!

The flip side, tho, is that he's quite happy to tell you when the reverse is true too --- when he feels GOOD and FEISTY lol -- which he has been in a BIG WAY lately lol. And guys, feisty Charles is legitimately my absolute favorite <3 <3 

scruffy boy is already growing out his clip

So I'm starting to get hopeful again. I know there are a lot of folks who follow, or maybe just check in every now and again, who disagree with Charlie's management or care or whatever. 

Plenty of folks on the internet want to diagnose and offer unsolicited veterinary advice. And it's easy to sit on the other side of the computer screen and believe you know exactly what the problems are, if only I'd just listen to you. 

But. Eh. None of that is really my concern. Charlie is my concern, and I'm seriously hopeful that we might be close to the other side of this whole ordeal. 

flying around in the mud with friends!

After observing his increasingly energetic and lively behaviors in the field (and occasionally in hand, ahem, Charles), I decided to finally get him back under saddle for more of a 'real' ride. Like, nothing serious, obvi. The old man has been out of work forever at this point, let's be real. 

But wanted to feel him out, try all the gears, see how he is, ya know?

link to quick video clip!

And guys -- he felt good <3 <3 <3

Like, low key running away with me, but so happy to be out doing things with his friends. Not like 100% perfect.... Again bc he's been out of work for a while and his hocks are way past due. There's a little jankiness behind, if ya know what I mean.

But that's a whole separate issue from his foot soreness, and one we can definitely deal with. 

 

d'aww charles, low-key running away with me, with four off the floor!

But I'd really really love to ride him more regularly again. If this sounds familiar, it's because I wrote a really similar post in August. After which, unfortunately, the farrier had a new (and not bad!) idea about changing strategies with Charlie's shoeing, and it definitely did not work. 

Charlie is due for his next shoeing appointment this Friday, and you better believe I'll be reassuring the farrier that we're on the right track -- don't change anything!!  

here for the charlie struts <3

Because, basically, I'm not interested in putting him back into work until he can come out of a shoeing appointment more or less comfortably and soundly. So maybe --- pretty pretty please --- this Friday will be that day?

So cross all your crossables for us, lol, bc doesn't everybody want more Charlie content???