Ignorance is bliss...

We went to a 4-H event last night and during the course of conversation I learned that Curly was not as well behaved at that last lesson as I had originally thought. I guess while I was chatting away with other parents on the sidelines, he was attempting to seriously buck E. off a couple of times! Luckily her coach was right there to tell her to yank him into a tight circle, regaining control before he could follow through with his threat.

We definitely need to start working that boy! He's forgotten his manners....and no wonder she said she was nervous on his back.

Nervous Nellies....

As we attempted to brush the mud off of Curly yesterday afternoon, he was a bundle of nerves. He was surprised when E. led him past the gate to the pasture and towards the front of the barn; it has been months since he has been in that area. Q, on the other hand, calmly stood there munching on any grass he could reach.

E.'s ride went better than I had anticipated. I was afraid that he would attempt to bolt, but for the most part he attended to her signals. His training has definitely back-slid, however. He was tossing his head and generally acting like the horse he had been during the mid-summer. The only stomach-clenching moment was when he decided that the dirt in the arena looked like a wonderful rolling spot and he started to buckle all his legs and go down, with E. on his back! She kicked him back up and forward before he got there but it did frighten her a bit.

E. spent most of the hour walking him; she didn't want to push his feet too much. He appeared to be in no pain and moved smoothly the whole hour. After the ride she said that when she asked for his trot, he moved into it immediately and it was way too fast. I reminded her that perhaps she had just gotten used to the plodding motions of old Q! She agreed, saying that Curly's energy made her a little nervous during the lesson. (Hmmmm, sounds like something I said when I tried riding him!).

But she was extremely happy to have ridden her horse....and can't wait to go out again!

Canceled due to weather...

I had hoped to be writing about E.'s first ride on Curly in 10 weeks but the lesson tonight had to be canceled. It is 4:18 p.m. and the temperature is already down to 28. Too cold to be riding outside and too icy to be pulling a loaded horse trailer around.

When we went to clean stalls yesterday, we joyfully watched as Curly cantered around an open field. It was so nice to see him moving again.

The girls are both in school holiday programs tomorrow night, so no riding at the 4-H ride night either. Hopefully the temps will be above 35 by Wednesday and we can go have fun then...

Curly's doing better and better...

Just a quick hoof-health update for those interested. Curly is doing so much better that we even considered saddling him up today for an easy walk around the covered arena at the fairgrounds. The dirt is soft and rock-free there, a necessity at the moment. He spent three hours out in the pasture yesterday and did fine. No increase in his lameness - in fact his soreness seemed to be almost completely gone today. He is definitely bored. For the first time in weeks, he tried to escape from his run when he saw that the gate was open. A good sign, I think.

But E. decided she really needed to do homework, so Curly's fun was delayed.

R. had a lesson on Q and did great. It was a wonderful evening at the horse barn.

Wild weather...

It snowed last week! On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the lovely white flakes fell from the sky for hours and hours each day. Too bad the ground was too warm for it to really stick - we only saw an accumulation of a couple of inches overall. Plus on Saturday, everything froze which made driving a real adventure. Thank goodness for curbs and empty roads! E. and I almost went into a ditch when we drove out to the barn to take care of our horses. The snow did make everything look so pretty out at the barn, though.

Yesterday a warm wind came through and melted everything. It's been blowing so hard that I'm surprised we haven't lost a few tree branches. We did have to cancel our hay run; the rain was falling sideways and I wasn't about to drive the truck with a semi-stable load in this craziness!

Curly is beginning to heal noticeably in both back hooves now. He still limps a bit but we can see definite improvement. I was teasing E. last night that she might get to ride her horse next year. :-)

Afternoon barn chores...

Made a quick trip out to the barn this afternoon - which means I spent only 1.5 hours there instead of the usual 2 to 3! Cleaned stalls, visited with my horse buddies and brushed the more major mud clumps off Curly. He seemed to be doing okay today. He is still quite tender in that left back hoof, but was able to walk on it when I let him out of his stall to roam around the barn yard at will.

I called our hay supplier this evening and arranged to pick up 26 more bales on Sunday. We'll need to make three more trips after that to get in all that is needed for the whole winter/spring. Both horses are enjoying their daily ration of one pound of grain pellets. Curly sucks up every little crumb he can find in his feeder. You'd think we were starving him or something!

The other shoe drops....

I think I now have a more literal understanding of the phrase "then the other shoe dropped." When E. and I visited the barn today to do our usual cleaning chores and to check on Curly's healing hoof, we discovered that he is no longer putting any weight on the other hind hoof. I did a thorough cleaning of the now-painful hoof and found his ankle (sorry, not the correct technical term but it's the best I can do!) to be warm and swollen. He was very sensitive on the outer portion of the hoof. I freaked out a bit when I cleaned it because there appeared to be a hole next to the frog, plus lots of extra bits sloughing off. This prompted me to run to the barn manager's house and disturb her quiet Sunday afternoon.

After graciously taking a look at Curly's hoof, she educated me on what is normal for a horse (which the bottom of his hoof, "big" hole, sloughing off frog-bits and all, is). But she did agree that his tenderness has definitely increased and we need to keep an extra close eye on it now. Curly is acting with this left hoof exactly the way he acted with the right one just before the abscess came through.

On a positive note, he was using his right hind just fine. I couldn't clean it (since he couldn't put any weight on the other one) so I don't know what it looks like at the moment but I'll happily assume that it's healing right up. :-)