Alls quiet on the Western Front

Well the horsey front anyway. As you might have noticed I haven't postsed about riding lately, why? Because I have only riden like twice in the last two weeks! But those two rides are noteworthy. Mostly because they were very exciting and make my current predicament even worse.
So first the bad:

Lucy is still tender on hard rocky ground. So I can only ride her down my trail at home which is like 3 miles round trip. I was very seriously considering trying sole guard on her until she gets trimed and can have boots on, but decided it was too much money to spend right now. So I might order a bottle of durasole and put that on until her trimming.

The good:

Lucy is apperently feeling her oats! I had been commenting to Loren that ever since that ride where she was so off she has been overly spooking (for Lucy) and jumpy and how weird that was. So when I finally took her out on a ride she was very energectic, more like she used to be. Then on Sunday when I rode we had a very eventful ride! I trotted her a bit at first then let her walk, her walk is much more like it used to be, long strided and fast, at the top of hills she would slow down a little bit like "oh yeah I'm kinda tired!" but then resume her faster speed. We rode past the Y and down the hill, where she really wanted to go faster. On the way back up I decided to trot her up and see how far she could go without losing momentum. At first she didn't want to trot, then she did then she cantered then she bucked, but not a serious buck! So then we made a wide turn at the trot and she wanted to go faster on the straight and got upset when I wouldnt' let her and bucked again. If Lucy didnt' have such wussy bucks it might have been a problem! But as it is even when she is really mad her bucks are not that big. Anyway I made her walk back which didn't take a lot of time since she had so much energy.

So now I am really annoyed because she finally has the energy for longer rides but because of her hooves she can't go on any of the trails that are longer! Grrr!

I might take her up my main trail this weekend and see how she does, if she does ok walking on the sides of the road up Gazos I can ride her up Johansons quite a ways since that is softer ground.


Luckly I haven't been too bored with all this time of no riding because Loren got me into wow. I know, I cannot belive it, its horrible. Although I am going to make my summer schedule up today and it might turn out that I do not have enough time for it. Loren will be disapointed though, and I really should have something outside of horses that I am into. I can't really play it much until I get my new computer, so for now I am playing on Lorens.

Ah the farrier has spoken!

And now stressed out horsey princess is no longer over reacting! No I don't call myselt horsey princess, my dad does! He has blue tooth in his truck (the cool kind that works through the rear veiw mirror) and for whatever reason it cannot disinguish my name, so he put me in as horsey princess. For some reason that always makes me feel closer to him.

Anyway, Luke called this afternoon and made me feel a lot better about Lucy. He said that it sounded like a lot of little things. Mostly that her hooves haven't toughend up yet from the winter and her year off, and that she might have gotten a bad stone bruise as well.

He did say not to ride her on any hard trails with a lot of rocks for a while as that could make her worse. But that as the ground drys out her feet will harden up again, and if I wanted to speed the process up I could put iodine or terpentine on her hooves.

So I will go back to riding her just at home for a while and then see about walking her up Gazos to ride on Johannson as it is a fairly soft trail.

The hoof of the problem

No matter what sport you are training for you should never overlook the horses hoof. I know this, and yet its what I did, and I am now suffering for the consiquences, or Lucy is anyway.

Ok, ok its not that bad, but I hate for anything to not be quite right and since a lot hasn't been quite right lately, this was sort of the final blow. But it might be the answer to all the problems. Maybe.

What is the problem? Just look below or click on Lucy's hooves my last post. Lucy's hooves have always looked so good that its quite a blow that they are in such a horrible state!

I only noticed after going to take pictures of them for a post about her tripping, much their apperance brings up much more then just tripping. It could by why she doesn't want to go out for rides and why she doesn't move out as well. If she is unbalanced by her hooves she could be in pain.

So for the next couple weeks I am suspending her from all activity. Luke just called and can come out on Wedneday or next week. I am NOT happy with him! But hopefully we can get her hooves back on track asap.

And to think I had just made a new training schedule for her! Yes I make a new one like every two weeks!

So more non horsey spring days will be going by!

Lucy hooves