Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down.

Bobby got the thumbs up from the farrier yesterday to go back into full work, including jumping and trail riding. I rode him for thirty minutes in the indoor with a good canter to the right, and lots of good w/t work for the first twnety minutes. As we were cruising along totally content, I was thinking to myself, "Bobby has been so good lately. He's really do for a blow up."

Cue crazy cows.

There's a large herd of beefers across the road from the indoor and they were right up against the fence yesterday, mooing away to their hearts content. You might not think this is a big deal for a horse that was born and raised at an ag school and has been around cows for five out of his seven years of life, but you'd be wrong. Giraffe neck made its reapparance and we spent the rest of the ride working on getting his nose out of the clouds so we could finish on a semi-respectable note.

Today started off with a full load of laundry thrown into the washer because Oscar had peed on them, followed by a call to the vet to test for a UTI because Oscar is like a very tidy gay man and would never not use the litter box unless something was wrong. I got an appointment for him in the afteroon and headed to the barn early.

oscar hunting ants.

I swear I'm going to start going to the barn an nine at night so I don't have to be greeted by anyone. No one ever has good things to say to me when I get there. Today was from BM: "Your horse is still outside because he incited a riot this morning and got everyone running and no one would come down." Robert..... He's such a wild beast when he's turned out.

So I armed myself with crinkly wrapped peppermints and headed up to get him. As soon as he saw me come up the hill, he neighed and made his merry way to the gate, ready to be brought in. "Mom, that evil woman abandoned me out here and it's hot and buggy and I'm starving to death! What? No, I didn't do anything wrong!" Mm hmm.

Now, will it suprise any of you that when I led him out, he was head bobbing lame? No! Not by now, right? And I bet by now you're going, "His shoe was off, wasn't it?" Mother effer. Same shoe--LF. His bell boot experiment was short lived as he came in with only one the second day and none the third day. They're the double velcroed Proffessional Choice bell boots and he rips them off with his teeth. Because that is just too much fun.

However, BM scared me up a hoof boot and I tacked him up for yet another twenty minute walk. I pulled my stirrups off and rode the whole time without them. It wasn't very taxing, with the exception of my thirty seconds of two point work. "Is by bum actually out of the saddle?? Maybe? Ah, yes. There's the breeze. Two point achieved." His walk work was really great at least. I expect all 10s on walk movements next weekend. Or not.

The farrier that put his shoe back on last week is supposed to be coming out tomorrow so hopefully he can tack a new one back on. My farrier will be putting clips on next week regardless, mabye even by the end of the week if other farrier doesn't come out. This is ridiculous! It doesn't help that Mr Mouth thinks bell boots are more fun to toss in the air than actually wear.

To top it off, the poor Fat Cat does indeed have a UTI and will be having antibiotics shoved down his throat twice a day for the next two weeks. He will not be happy, and neither is the ole check book.

waiting for his test results.