re: flower pots, or something

Happy Friday!! This past week was spent mostly dealing with the fallout from both ponies losing shoes. Nothing crazy or anything.... But a new twist in adjusting to managing horses at different locations. 

the legend himself <3 <3 
also... wow, my barn manager's phone takes wayyyy nicer photos than mine. hm.

Charlie continues in his infinite and unending quest to be just unsound enough to not get ridden (while still maintaining his carefree lifestyle of maximum turnout with his friends). He threw us through a loop when after throwing both front shoes (on different days), he was suddenly very very lame on his RH.

slowly splitting stuff up between farms. threw this kit together for charlie: vet wrap, cling wrap, elastikon, animalintex poultice pads, plastic hoof soaking bags, epsom salts, duct tape, flushing syringes, gloves, various types of gauze and cotton pads, left over metro from the last abscess, and a pill crusher

Luckily (??) it's just another abscess. This horse, I swear. His history is spotty enough that just managing him through a basic ailment can still drive me crazy, torturing myself about what choices to make. Turn him out / Keep him in? Wrap or no? 

farrier tried to dig it out a little, but couldn't get it to drain

And bc Charlie's timing is always so perfect, these choices were complicated by the impending rainfall expected from Tropical Storm Debby. 

guys. indoor wash stall + hot water = game changer for painless foot soaking!
(also yes i'm aware this is a suboptimal bucket lol, you work with what ya got!)

Finally, after much back and forth with his care team, we decided to continue turnout, tho added in soaking + a wrap after the farrier widened the defect trying to drain it. This meant some back and forth driving to Doozy's farm (a pleasant 25min cruise across the countryside) to organize supplies, something I've been willfully neglecting, not gonna lie. But we got it done.

post-soak. y'all have seen me wrap a hoof so many times, i didn't take pictures. refer to this post if you're curious how i do it. in this case, i added a poultice pad to facilitate drainage.
also --- guys, charlie has been barefoot behind for ~3 months and is doing way better than expected!

It helps that the barn family at Charlie's place is legit wonderful. The folks there are great, everybody loves all the horses, and I get updates constantly. The farm is also laid out in such a way that "turnout" isn't such a complicated thing as at the last place. 

next day wrap, with bonus drainage. just normal charlie things!

Like, sure, the last place had lovely paddocks around the barnyard. But horses were normally alone in them, there was no grass (and possibly not much hay thrown), and it was definitely *not normal* to the horses, who would have preferred to be with their friends out in the fields -- which were themselves quite far away. 

walking in thru the rain-induced foliage explosion for breakfast -- SOUND + wrap intact!

At this point in Charlie's physical condition, it's so nice to have such well managed grassy lots close in to the barn. It's a lot easier for him to stick to his normal routine even if his condition is a little compromised, like by the abscess. 

anyways. kittens.

He seems to be on the mend anyway, so we'll probably keep him wrapped and keep an eye on him for the next few days just to be sure. 

these critters have begging down to an art form

In the meantime, over in the Land of Dooz, things have been a bit quiet too. For all my big talk about riding every day, well... bc of the lost shoe and resulting soreness, we only logged two rides last week. Recall that Ride 1 of the week was playing with puddles in the soggy ring, resulting in said pulled shoe (d'oh...!). 

this critter tho <3 <3 <3 those donkey ears omg.
she's patiently waiting for her foliage to explode too, lol, pls thx & hurry up

That was Saturday, and she got the shoe reset early Monday morning. But was predictably a little sore on the foot when I returned that evening for an easy flat school. At first I got a little nervous bc we were slated to ride with Dom again this week... But then that got rescheduled anyway, so, eh, Doozy got another day off just to be sure.

lil Debby, bringing that drama to our skies!

Which meant that saddling up for our first ride after three days off, and only 1 ride in the last five days was possibly a questionable affair haha -- especially since we were planning to hack out. With a tropical storm literally brewing across the skyline. No big deal, right? 

crazy how green everything got after even just a little bit of rain

Right. Bc omg guys, the more ya ride the horse, the more rideable she gets. The training holds. So despite a somewhat spotty week, the last month of consistent routine schooling did what it's supposed to do, and the mare was relaxed, confident and pleasant for our little hack!

doozy's tail almost looks full from this angle!

My friend texted me a meme the other day about a professor in a pottery class dividing his students into two groups. The first group would be graded solely on the quantity of pots they created over the semester -- to be measured by literally weighing the pile. Group 2 would be graded on just the quality of a single pot they chose as their representation. 

who can tell me what type of shrub this is?? these flowers are so gorgeous!

But by the end of the semester, the best quality pots were ultimately those created by Group 1, who had been focused on churning out pot after pot. Bc it turns out, when you do something often enough, you get better at it. Group 2, meanwhile, got a bit bogged down in the philosophical quest for perfection, stymied by their reluctance to be only "good enough."

obvi when presented with gigantic floral orbs, one must stop for photos!
also lol i slowed the speed of this gif down but doozy is still just such a busy horse haha

To my friend, this was a wonderful and empowering analogy for horsemanship and riding. To become 'great,' you have to first be 'good.' And to get 'good,' you maybe have to start with... something less than that. Let's say, 'neutral' or 'ok' or 'can more or less do the thing.'

Dante and Doozy make good trail buddies <3

Obvi I loved the pot**tery class analogy too, bc it matches well with my approach to horse training. I might not be the most skilled rider, or most technically proficient. And let's be real, some of my habits can actually be considered significant shortcomings... But consistent routine boring mundane practice goes a long way in closing those gaps. 

(**I also lol'd bc somebody recently misheard the mare's name and thought I called her "Doobie," which... obvi I joked that maybe THAT'S what she needs lol. So ya know. Maybe more pot is what we all need around here? jk jk haha, sorta!)

nbd, just stopping to smell the roses pot flowers <3

So ya know. Have a great weekend. Go ride your horse haha... Unless they're like Charlie, I guess LOL(sob), in which case, ya know. Hope you get to enjoy some quality time with them all the same ;)