la niña strikes back!

I hinted about it in recent posts, but it's been DRY around these parts lately! Which isn't super unusual, I guess. Seems like we never get much rain from about June to August, with the exception of concentrated hit-or-miss T-cell storms.

welcome to Rain Watch 2024

This time of year was always the worst for Charlie -- a real balancing act between keeping him in some semblance of work, without beating his feet into the hard dry ground. 

always interesting watching the storms roll in from 9 floors up

Doozy doesn't seem to have the same sensitivities... Or at least, certainly not at our current level of work LOL! 

pictured: driving north to charles, looking west where it's raining near doozy

It's a good thing, too, bc one of the biggest challenges in moving barns after so long in one place is the resulting shakeup in my team of pros. Charlie's new farm is still within my original farrier's territory, but Doozy's is not. So my original farrier made a referral for us.

increased turnout + growing grass + daily rides = HOLY TOE GROWTH, BATMAN!
pic taken at 4wks 3 days since last shoeing

Tho I'm not sure we made the best first impression on the new guy either, whoops!! I had to cancel our first appointment at the last minute bc of jury duty... so by the time he first met the horse she was about a week past due (at 6wks when ideally she'd get done at 5wks). 

Guys. Pro tip: Any good professional will do a good professional job.... but it's still in our best interest to present the horse as clearly well cared for, maintained, and managed lol. Like, it's hard to take claims of high standards seriously when the horse looks like a hot mess, right?

playing with puddles

But ya know. This new guy did a very nice job, put very beautiful shoes on Doozy, and we scheduled our next appointment based on how her feet looked at that time --- which again, had been at 6wks. 

He has other clients at this farm, so we figured if Doozy could stretch to 6wks again I'd be able to get on the same cycle as those other clients -- a win win for everybody, right?

calling it right now: at some point this mare is probably gonna roll with me in some water lol

Meanwhile, Doozy's lifestyle has changed dramatically over the last month. She went from quarantine in a dry lot, with only very low intensity riding.... To overnight turnout in a large grassy field, with the addition of finally getting into regular daily work. 

Oh, and another unintended bonus from switching farms?? Doozy (and Charlie too, actually) got a significant upgrade in her daily nutrition -- at less cost to me. Crazy how some farms just have quality feed included in board like that, LOL(sigh).

possibly an ill-advised ride overall lol... sand all up in'er bits! and we pulled a shoe, womp

All this, plus Doozy's innate thoroughbred qualities mean that her toes have straight up jumped the shark.... At legit only 4wks and 3days, you could probably host the Miniature Winter Olympics off those ski slopes omg!

well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my own poor choices!

I was absentmindedly weighing options for how to present this conundrum to my brand new farrier, while strolling around in the immediate aftermath of one of the aforementioned T-cell storms. We'd just gotten like an inch of rain in about 30min, and yours truly thought it would be fun to play around with the puddles in our soggy outdoor ring. 

Ya know. On my long-toed creature, who's been living in more or less draught conditions for a few weeks. Do you see where this is going?

eh, she needed done anyway and the farrier was able to come out asap!

Yea. Uh, whoops? Poor Doozy made a good effort of the slop (esp considering it was her Ride 1 after a day off), but predictably got a bit bogged down and pulled a shoe. Womp womp.

fresh kicks!! new farrier has a plan, and i'll be curious how her feet develop over time, esp re: lateral symmetry given her conformation

Turns out, Charlie pulled a shoe too in the same thunderstorm (tho he did that by himself --- no stupid pilot errors involved there!). I guess if it rains hard enough after a long enough draught, just about anything can happen with those poor shoes.

charles got in on the fun too -- tossing one shoe a couple days before his farrier appt, and then another shoe AFTER OMG said appt. brosef, why tho!

Luckily both farriers have been super responsive and both horses were able to get reset without a lot of fanfare. Obvi Charlie will be sad sore and pitiful for a little while bc... Well. He's retired for a reason, right? 

my lame ass gelding's literal face after he chased Avi away from his fence-line girlfriend....

But ugh. Summer is my least favorite season for exactly these kinds of situations!! If you need us, we'll just be hiding out, biding our time and waiting for better conditions come Fall....

Well. Except for Charlie, who is clearly already living his #BestLife, sore feet be damned LOL