Mold, Hooves and Celery, OH MY!

So three topics of discussion... none really at all related other then the fact that all revolved around Gus.

Firstly, mold. OMG. When I got to the barn on Wednesday (no lesson due to the heat), I couldn't believe how much mold my tack had accumulated in mere days. It was like I was back living in N. Georgia... in the summer. It was ridiculous.

Here's a couple pictures of Gus's bridle. It was disgusting...



Needless to say, ALL of Gus's tack needed to come home and get cleaned. So, instead of resting Wednesday evening, I spent two hours cleaning all my tack with a mixture of vinegar & water followed by a light coating of glycerin saddle soap. Everything is now sparkling clean and healthy-looking again.

Hooves. Well, on Thursday, July 14th Gus got his hooves retrimmed again. He was just four weeks post trim and was really needing to be retrimmed again. Frustrating to have to go four weeks instead of the usual 5-6 weeks, but if that's what he needs because of our crappy weather, then so be it.

Here's a bunch of photos from Gus's trim, one week out (taken on July 20th). As usual, then are show from left fore, to left hind, right hind to right fore.

And, for the heck of it, here's a photo of Gus enjoying his celery snack. I did find out via CoTH (my go-to source for information or rather opinions) that Gus probably can have watermelon, just in moderation. So, I'll be sure to get some watermelon for him next go-round.

Celery is his new favorite thing, I think. I've never seen Gus devour something so fast as he did the celery.

Yesterday, I had a really nice ride on Gus again. First ride in like two weeks. And first ride in YEARS sans any real "tack". I didn't even have Gus's halter on. Haha. Actually, he had a halter and two lead ropes as "reins" but the halter wasn't his. I had forgotten I had left all of my cleaned tack at my parents' house... so by the time I got to the barn it was a little too late to head the other direction into town. So, my BO was gracious enough to allow me to borrow a halter and I was able to supply the lead ropes.

All we managed to work on yesterday was a few walk/trot laps over the cavalletti that were set up in the north arena and then we went on a "road" and "field" ride with another lady, L and her horse, T. All in all, it was a nice ride but we didn't get anything accomplished. Tomorrow is lesson time again, so I'm hoping we have a good lesson. I won't keep my fingers crossed as neither Gus nor I have worked at all in the last couple weeks. Slackers I guess.