First Trail Ride of the New Year!

Well, today it was FINALLY nice enough (and I was off work in time) to have a quick ride outside. It's a muddy, wet mess outside, but that didn't stop me or Gus. We had a nice ride out on the gravel roads today ... probably did about a mile or two over the course of about 30 minutes. Gus was a VERY GOOD boy, as usual. There is definitely something to be said when you can pull a horse out of the pasture, tack him up, and ride outside like you've been doing it all winter long. Love my ol' man.

So, I did end up putting Gus and Gringo in lighter-weight blankets. Gringo, actually, is running around now in his Centaur sheet. Gus has his Centaur sheet on along with an ancient blanket ... so about 100g or so of fill total.

Both boys are still shedding out like crazy, which is a very good thing. Hopefully after a couple more weeks, they'll both be done shedding out. That would be absolutely AMAZING.

Updates ... A bit overdue.

Okay. So life has been super, duper busy as of late and the boys have (unfortunately) been on the back-burner.

Gus had his hooves trimmed last on March 14th and I *think* things are still looking good for him. He's still sporting full bar shoes + full snow pads + borium studs, but I'm hoping to remove the pads and borium next shoe cycle. Hopefully by then, end of April, we'll be done with snow and ice. If not, we'll I'm moving south! I'll try to get photos posted soon ... they are stuck on my cell phone at the moment, as usual.

Gringo's hooves still seem to be doing okay too. He's dealing with some on and off thrushy issues - so when I think of it, I do try to use of the mastitis ointment (Tomorrow) in the the crevices to ward off any more infection. His last trim was back on February 27th, I'm guessing he'll get done again sometime the beginning part of April. He's still barefoot and reasonably sound.

As far as workload goes, both boys have had it really easy as of late. I've done a couple rides on Gus over the last two weeks and both times he truly was a trooper. He still looks to be fairly sound, abit stiff, but he does work through his issues. Gringo has had it super, duper easy. He's been ponied twice off Gus in the last couple weeks. Despite not having attempted this in months, he was a pretty decent boy. Although he thought it would be more fun to start a fight with Gus, he did at least listen to me and acted like the 10 year old he is - eventually.

I'll try to start blogging a bit more regularly again soon. At least I really hope to.

Gus ... Confuses me.

Well, the last time I rode Gus was last Thursday, February 28th. We did our usual routine and he just didn't seem 100% right. It probably had A LOT to do with the fact that I didn't have spurs on OR a crop with me. So the forward button was entirely my leg - which Gus is fairly dull to. Oh well.

It also didn't help that B starting lunging her young gelding just as we were finishing our warmup - so we didn't have access to the entire arena. Instead, we had the rail and only one end to work with. I was not fully satisfied with our trot work so I'm hoping when I get the opportunity to get to the barn again, it'll be much improved - or at least better then it was the last time.

Because of our lovely snow storm, I'm not sure when I'll make it out to the barn next. The way it looks right now, it probably won't be until Friday. I don't work til later tomorrow, but we're supposed to get another dumping of snow overnight tonight. Yippee skippy. Not. Then, I'm stuck working long days on both Wednesday AND Thursday. I desperately need my therapy ... should've gone to the barn yesterday. Kicking myself for skipping out on that.

Gringo's Footsies

Well ... nothing has changed too much here in Minnesota. It's March 4th and winter is still hanging on. As I type, we're in the midst of another winter storm. This one is named Saturn. Lovely, huh?

Anyways, Gringo had his hooves trimmed again this past Wednesday. So here's the shots, like usual.

Not sure what's with the "bump" about midway up the hoof wall ... odd.

And he's got a real odd "bullnose" sorta bump going on here. I guess I need to keep an eye on this.

Good news is, J said the thrush is going away. So the plan is to keep using the mastitis ointment frequently in hopes of clearing up all his thrushy issues. 

In other Gringo news, nothing has really gone on with him, as of late. He's shedding like crazy - hence all the Gringo hair in the above photos. It's IMPOSSIBLE to get all of it swept up. 

I haven't done a lot of work with Gringo lately, either. But he's such a good boy that he literally leaves right were we left off. I do need to start committing to him more frequently. I keep saying that, but honestly, I need to act on it. He deserves it.