Blah?

It's been a weird week. Marred by mostly horse racing news, the highlights just seem bleek. 

• Death of G1 winner Monzante
• Injury & colic of St Nicholas Abbey
• Oxbow injured
• Take Charge Indy injured & retired
• Death of Unbridled's Song
• Corporate Jungle's injury
• Death of my favorite morning radio host.

Dakota & Echo are about the same. Continuing some ground work in the round pen with Echo before I get on her. Trying to work through a few issues before I proceed.

The highlights of the last week:

My friend Josie, who I wrote about here, got her double lung transplant July 27th / 28th after a 10+ hour surgery. Fingers crossed for a successful recovery.

The Rood and Riddle Grand Prix

 

Heat heat go away!

Well it stopped raining. Which I should of known meant time for it to heat up. I'm such a northern sissy when it comes to heat. It gets 80+ and I won't entertain the idea of riding. 85+ I have to force myself to the barn but if there's a breeze I'm alright. 90+ I'm flat out useless and slug my way through cleaning stalls and go home ASAP. How the heck do my California & Florida friends ride in this? 

Heat index is well over 100 I believe for next couple of days. If I want to ride, looks like I'll be planning on saddling up around 9-10pm at this rate. Yay for indoors with decent lighting. 

Positive note. It's been just over 4 weeks since Dakota had his shoes put on. 1) He still has them on *knock on wood* 2) Check out the crazy amount of growth he's had! The top point was at his coronet band when he had the shoes put on in June. The I'm beyond thrilled that this farrier didn't completely screw up the angles of his hooves and had made the shoes last this long with no glue needed (especially with all that rain we had). I may actually have a shot at getting this crazy crazy crazy crack in his hoof to grow out with the summer growth burst in combination of good farrier and winter not around corner to have to pull them off.

For those that don't know... he's had this crack, that started as a sand surface crack in 2006 before we moved to Kentucky the first time. It's grown 1/2 way out before, then winter came and I had to pull them because it was so icy. It then progressed to a deeper crack, going through the white line at one point. Fingers crossed.

Muzzle Musings

Oh Echo... What am I going to do with you?

I love my mare, I really do, but sometimes I just look at her, shake my head and see one disaster of a horse. We got her hind end female issues clear, now I have a clover induced drooling mess of a horse with a messed up muzzle. 

Drool and some of the spotting on her muzzle. Such a glorious sight.

When I got Echo last fall, she arrived with what I assumed to be spots of sunburn from being left outside 24/7. The first week I had her, I applied Corona Ointment daily and it cleared up. No more problems.

Pre Michigan Photo - you can see slightly the muzzle spots.

My thoughts:

• If it was an allergy to grass, clover or a weed wouldn't it be on more of her body?
• If it was Vitiligo would she loose hair or have changes to her hair?
• I've given her mineral blocks in both stall and her field, as well at adding a little extra mineral top dressing to her grain to try and rule out either a copper or iron deficiency. 
• Not summer / sweet itch. It'd be all over her body for sure.

Regardless of whatever it is, it clearly isn't bothering her, just me. I'll update on what vet says whenever I have him take a look at it. Not in a HUGE rush to figure it out, just would like to know.

More delish drool.

Side note - I lunged her this morning before work. She was a mess. Acted like she's never lunged in her life. Time to figure out how to get consistent with her again. 

Blurred Lines

Saturday to now is one giant blur. So I better write this thing 1) before I forget it all 2) so I can remember things in the future.

Saturday C and I rushed after work to get to the barn and get our horses all done so we could head to The Red Mile to see the fancy pant Saddlebred's do their thing. My conclusion? Most entertaining, amusing and disturbing horse show all at once. "Please walk your horse" simply meant just keep doing what you're doing, no need to demonstrate a 4 beat walk gait in a 3 or 5 gaited class (sarcasm). Just simply, wow.

Hackney going around in one of the driving classes.

Sunday I got to the barn after work and briefly debated doing something with one of the horses. I had no idea who or what. I took a brush in Dakota's stall since wash/groom stalls were taken and found all his itchy spots and made him happy by brushing him all over. I decided to get a different brush and like an idiot, left his gate open by a mere 2-3 inches. My brushes were right outside his stall, should of been no problem. Dakota apparently felt a workout coming but he had his own version to demonstrate. He flung the gate open to his stall, bumping me out of the way and took off at a gallop out the end of the barn. Great. First thought, good he didn't go toward the parking lot which last time he did that he galloped toward the road before changing his route. Second thought was grab Echo, she'll be great bait in catching the little sneaky gelding. He didn't even look at Echo of course. I put her in the round pen hoping she'd call to him, nope. I left her there though, and took her lead rope as extra Dakota catching gear. Luckily he ran toward the 'track' at the farm. Which has the outside perimeter fenced in so unless he got out the opening we had blocked with C and myself, he wasn't going to far. He said hi to every mare that is turned out in the 'infield' of the so called track area. Then instead of being a good horse and coming to me who was only 10-15 feet away, he took off at a dead out gallop around the track. I went and got grain, hoping it'd entice him. I come back, D is closer to us than he was when he took off but he's keeping his distance, visiting new horses. Spun around, took off at a gallop back the other direction around the track. 

Now I have to say, while he's trotting, galloping around, I got A LOT of compliments on how cute of a mover he is. Softened the blow of my horse being a jackass a little.

Dakota see's C and I standing across the track, he digs in, puts his head down and speeds up. C starts trying to scare him into stopping, waving things in the air - doesn't work on a horse that's gone through hours and hours of police horse desensitizing work. Finally he skids to a stop, turns and trots a few strides but finally succumbs to the sound of the grain in the bucket. 

Dakota = barely sweating and having a great time. Me = Covered in sweat and exhausted. Echo = pissed off that she didn't get to run with him. I turn them out and go home and call it a night. Dakota wins.

Yesterday I had a full list of things to do. Woke up with zero motivation. Finally C texted me at 11ish to go to one of the stallion open houses going on. I oblige because they have two stallions I would consider sending Echo to. I wanted to see them now, even if I planed on seeing them in November at open house time. Note... I had considered breeding Echo to a TB for a racing prospect, but in last few weeks after more research I'm 99% sure I'll never breed her for that purpose. Nonetheless I want to look at stallions. Gives me something to do. Four of the stallions at Spendthrift:

Into Mischief

Line of David

Temple City

Awesome Patriot

Then headed to Fasig-Tipton for the July Yearling sale. We watched about 50 hips sell. Some exciting ones, some not so exciting ones. It was really hot so we spent most our time sitting in the sales area, not making too much movement so no one thought we were bidding.

A little bumper sticker humor for anyone that follows horse racing. Colleen and I died laughing over this thing. If you don't know, but want to know, click here.

Wrapped up the day by heading toward the mall to do some much needed apartment supply shopping.

Tonight I have to rush after work to get the horses done so I can get back home to meet a maintenance person so no hope of me working horses tonight. Maybe tomorrow? That October Thoroughbred show is creeping closer and closer way faster than I want it to for Echo...

Who Needs a Routine

Moving into the apartment has thrown me completely off in any sort of routine I had while staying on the couch at the farm. Living on south end of Lexington + Barn on north side of Lexington = double the drive time in my day.

Work... I don't know what days of the week I'm even going to be working. I need a set schedule and soon. I don't care (yet) so much about what hours of the day I'll be working, I just need to know if I'm M-F, Tues-Sat or really anything at this point.

Riding / training Echo and Dakota are taking the biggest hit right now. I need an extra 10 hours in my days!

Thankfully this weekend I get to work 9-5 both Saturday and Sunday. Tomorrow / Saturday I'm off to watch the fancy pant ponies at The Junior League Horse Show at The Red Mile. Not a saddlebred fan, should be interesting. Also in much need of a night of margaritas and Mexican food with my lovely friends ASAP. Hopefully that will happen this weekend.

Monday no work so... Fasig Tipton July Yearling Sale... YAY. I love sales. LOVE. I have a pretty lengthy list of the yearlings I want to check out so it should be a great day.

The Move

Move = Done.

I got to Michigan by 10:30 Sunday night after an alright drive. I had to stop and take a few 15 minute power naps but not too big of a deal. 

The Before

Monday morning my Dad got the U-Haul super early - too early for me at least. Then my uncle that was in town from Chicago came and helped us load the truck in record time. It took us about 90 minutes start to finish to get everything in. I'm 100% positive that if my uncle had not helped, we would either 1) still be loading it OR 2) half my stuff would still be in Michigan. My Dad just does not listen to me on stacking and packing. He clearly never played Tetris. So thank you to my wonderful uncle!

The After

Tuesday we packed up the cats and few remaining things around the house and got on the road by 9:30 in the morning. Mid drive my phone starts blowing up from my bank that there were fraud charges on my account. Moral of the story? Don't go to a McDonald's while you're on a road trip, or probably ever because that shit just isn't that good. Anyways, I love my bank and they had already froze my account and reversed all charges for me before they called me then overnighted me a new debit card. Fast forward a few hours and we finally got to Lexington. Went to dinner, and started unloading. Fast forward another hour or so we called it quits for the day.

Then my Dad forgot to latch the back door. I laughed and took a picture before I helped. I know, I'm a good daughter.

Holly Riding in style.

Abu riding in his crate and wearing his thundershirt!

Wednesday morning we finished the few boxes left to be taken inside. I followed my Dad to the barn with the truck and we unloaded the rest of my barn stuff there and he took off back to Michigan and I went home to attempt to unpack and recover.

And Kentucky welcomed me back with a lovely Thunderstorm on Wednesday afternoon.

Moving Time!

I drive to Michigan this afternoon after I'm off work at 3. Long few days ahead but I cannot wait. 

No real pony news other than last night, as I go to clean Dakota's stall I see one entire wall is covered in a light blue mold. Que a bucket of soap, bleach and a stiff bucket brush. It was absolutely disgusting. Pretty sure it's because the person that had that stall before me 1) fed her horse in a water bucket 2) fed him a mash almost daily 3) never cleaned up after her horse. When I had sanitized the stall before Dakota & Echo arrived to Lexington the hardened mash on the wall was going nowhere. I can now say, its clean. Last thing I wanted to do last night, especially with my extreme intolerance for mold, yay allergies.

4 Sleeps To Go

I rode Dakota yesterday. Or tried to. Basically the conclusion was never riding him in something other than my Courbette dressage saddle and never without a flash band to hold his mouth shut. Will try riding him again this week - not much else to add after such a frustrating ride.

Echo is well... Echo. She's developed a hatred of being fly sprayed. Which I just see as a challenge because I won't let her get away with it. Bringing her in this morning she had to stop every 5 feet to itch. *sigh*

Only 4 sleep's to go until I get to sleep in my own bed!!! Yay. My back and every other joint in my body won't know how to act. Cannot wait. Hopefully this will mean better rest = more energy to ride and train.

Four Day Weekend

No Monday video today because not much exciting has happened other than lots of down-pouring rain. 

I started my four day weekend not how I REALLY wanted to. I really just wanted to curl up on the couch and sleep. I was bound and determined to prove people wrong though and decided to groom and bathe both horses. They didn't see it coming, no one did, not even me, but in an attempt to gain control of Echo's wild mane... I roached it. Then I bathed her, and repeated on Dakota. I thought I'd regret it, but it turned out pretty decent and as Echo's mane grows back I'll hopefully be able to tame it better. 

Roached maned mare.

Itchy Mare

The Best Duo

Then in the evening I tagged along with George and Colleen to pick up a horse that was coming to the barn to be boarded. She previously kept her horse Lifey (a 21yr old Holsteiner) here before but moved sometime after I had left for Michigan. She took her to the most expensive and prettiest boarding farm in Lexington area - however it's apparently also the worse for horse care. Pictures of the place from the pickup:

Saturday was my birthday which also didn't go fully as planned. Mother Nature prevented us from going to Churchill Downs as planned, but we went out to dinner and I had a great night hanging out with my friends who also got me a yummy ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Huge thank you everyone who sent me well wishes on my birthday :)

Yesterday... well I was pretty much useless. I helped clean some stalls but sleeping was my main priority which has carried over into today. I did get grain this morning to feed my beast, good accomplishment for the day. Tomorrow is my final day off on my extended weekend. I'm determined to ride at least one of my horses but at the same time it's felt great to relax before a stressful week to come. 6 Days until Michigan to move :)