Wishing and Hoping

Today is what we hope will be TC's LAST ULTRASOUND in this awful suspensory saga. I'll be selling tickets to the musical soon to help pay off all his medical expenses.

By the time this post goes out, I'll already be getting off my first horse of the day and probably on the way to teach before the vet appointment starts at 11. It's been in the 100s so I just couldn't stand doing the vet check and then going to teach/ride. After this all I have to do is go get some delicious tea and find some air conditioning to enjoy.

A collection of my favorite pictures from rehab and ultrasounds

Resting a foot!!!

Yesterday I stopped in at my new barn to talk to BRH trainer at the request of the barn owner. I had emailed her to touch base and she said all was good, but that she wasn't sure why he needed 8 flakes of hay. Apparently the website is not up to date and they feed 4 flakes already, so double feed would be completely excessive. That's awesome! That's almost a lesson a month I'm saving.

BRH trainer was in charge of finding a stall and dealing with my crazy now that he's going to officially be my trainer. I have a trainer and will be *in training* with someone. Cool! I'm excited. I love that the pressure will be off me to deal with issues and make decisions. I know that I'm fully capable of getting through this by myself, but man it's sometimes just really nice to follow a program and turn my trainer brain off and fully enjoy my horse. Definitely less stressful.

I got there and he was working with one of my previous trainers' young horses (a lot of people send their super fancy horses to him, TC will not be the nicest horse he works with by far lol). She's two years old and just amazing. He said that she has these amazing gaits, especially when she's being bad. I only saw her walking but man she's built for dressage.

So cute!

GIMME SNAX

He showed me the stalls (12x36 paddock with 12x12 of it covered/matted) available and there was one available in the row I wanted! We talked about getting a load of blue rock in to even out the paddock a bit so there isn't such a big drop off of the stall into the paddock. That's prime for reinjury so I was glad that he brought it up so I didn't have to be a crazy person. And I went by the hardware store nearby to get no climb wire to prevent the dumb baby horse from injuring himself again. He said that if I provided it, he would have the guys put it up! That's really helpful.

I also have a tack locker! The plan is to put my trunk outside his stall so that it can hold blankets and his grain (I'm going to bag up grain each week so that the guys can feed him) and probably a few brushes/fly spray and things I might want near the stall. The tack locker is next to a set of cross ties near the covered arena, which is going to be super convenient in the winter. It's small, and actually there is a slightly bigger one next to it that might be open and I might request that one. But either way it will be fine, I have a place at the ranch to store stuff that I don't need and I can always get another trunk or something for in front of his stall.

The only downside in my mind is that I'm going to have to be creative about hanging things on the wall- I'd love a set of shelves, a bridle rack, and a saddle rack all on the walls to leave room on the ground for a few things, but the entire locker is plastic so nailing into it probably won't be an option. I'll be searching online for how to make it work for me. At the very least I want to be able to hang his bridle and longeing stuff so that will be the first thing I look into.

IS THIS SMILING?

The best at selfies

We also chatted about what to do with TC. I said I wanted him in full training for July (so basically 3 weeks) and then we'd reevaluate. Honestly we'll probably back off to half training or even just working together once or twice a week to address the minor issues he's had. It's all going to depend on how TC is. I can see it going a lot of different directions- he might find the riding work so much more interesting than swimming/endlessly circling that he calms down and focuses better. Or he might think FINALLY I AM FREE and be crazy. It's likely to be a little of both.

Our main goal is to get TC comfortable being ridden all over the ranch and in all the arenas. I'm not actually worried about riding him around the ranch. At our previous barn I would regularly hop on him bareback in the rope halter and ride him up to turnout, even after a day or two off, and then he'd explode only when he was let loose. The horse is good in the open at the walk. It's when you open the door for trotting/cantering, he thinks he can get sassy.

Then I talked to him briefly about him helping me with trail riding- me on Rico and him on TC for the first ride- but that it probably wouldn't happen until next year.

Our first lesson is scheduled for next Thursday (THAT IS SO SOON), as he's leaving on vacation and returning the same day that TC comes in, so I'll be handling TC on the first day. If he's quiet we'll walk around but if he's nutty, we'll just hang out in the paddock.

Love his little hippo face

Loves getting his lips brushed

Overall I was just SO happy to be at my barn. The familiar drive, meeting new people and seeing old friends, and just imagining going through the trail course and riding in the covered arena with mirrors and playing in the dressage court. I just love the place! It is definitely going to make a HUGE difference to be able to have the facility I need, the trainers I need with both BRH trainer and Tracey coming into the place, and the location I need. Even if I had to force the situation a little bit with my job. Worth it.

I'm also SO happy that the ultrasound is TODAY, I feel like I can't wait any longer. I have a lot of hopes and expectations for this visit. And I am a bit worried, obviously. But the worst case scenarios aren't so bad anymore.

The absolute worst case scenario (other than suddenly needing surgery, which seems unlikely but is still entirely possible) is that he needs another month or two of rehab and another ultrasound. That puts us into the fall for him coming back and that makes me nervous. The second worst case scenario is that he comes home and needs another ultrasound before he canters. I really really want this to be the last ultrasound. But another ultrasound is only money, money I will have to scrimp and save up, but it's only money.

Luckily he has been pretty sound and the leg has stayed tight. An obsessively detail oriented person who stares at horse legs all day could see that there's a difference between the two legs, but just glancing at it, you can't tell that there's anything wrong. Like I've said in the past, I don't give two shits whether his legs look terrible, I just want him sound and able to work.

Traumatized

I want that hock flexion undersaddle omg

The best case scenario is that his leg looks great and that he could come home and be ready to canter or increase trotting to 20-30 minutes right away. That's unlikely to happen. I'm guessing that we're going to be trotting undersaddle a bit less than he was doing on the walker just because there's more weight on him with a rider. Then we'll work back up to 15 minutes and then to 20 and eventually 30 maybe. I considered Rico in full work when we were doing 30 minutes of trot and 20 minutes of canter, though that seems excessive for the baby horse. Like, I don't want him capable of cantering that long.

As much as I'd love to get the okay to canter right away, I'm not banking on it. In all honesty, he will need a lot of work in trot training-wise to get him ready to canter even without taking into account the injury. With no dressage under his belt in eight months, we're going to be hanging out in walk and trot a lot to reestablish the connection/throughness and get him moving off my leg well. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't canter until this fall just from a training standpoint. Although with his tendency to bolt, it'd be nice to start cantering in September at the latest just because of the winter.

His face kills me

Omg eight days before I get to sit on that amazing trot

So please cross everything you can and even some of the bits you really shouldn't. Today I'm really hoping to hear that my pony can come home next week.

I'm also just excited to see him, it's been a couple of weeks now!