Hooray for 18 Hour Days!

Today was interesting. I've been up since 3:30AM; the barn I work for was hosting a H/J schooling show today. Rings opened at 7:15 for unjudged warm-up and the boss wanted the chores done by 7AM at the latest. Yay early mornings! I went to bed at 8 last night, thinking I would want the extra sleep, but I didn't end up REALLY going to bed until 10ish. Save for a brief stint when I was 10 or 11 years old, I've liked being up early and having the rest of my day to do things. My alarm went off at 3:30 this morning, I had no coffee, soda, tea or anything else with caffeine, got to work, got started on stalls, and felt completely alert and focused. My co-workers and I were giggling messes this morning; because no one else was at the barn, the three of us griped and bitched about whatever we wanted to. Boarders, the horses we don't like, barn politics, drama...you name it, we complained. It was hilarious; today was my last day working at this barn before I head back to school for soccer preseason (TOMORROW!) and it was fun to just, well, bitch. *insert cheeky eye-roll here*

Let's just put it this way; I was so alive and goofy this morning, my boss asked me if I was drunk. No, sir! but it was funny that the thought even came up.

Ernie and Stella are very settled in, so much so that they were both VERY fresh and VERY pushy today. They've been in their paddocks for the past day and a half because I've been at home, so Donnie fed and watered them for me. They'll start getting out to pasture this week, hopefully, but I turned them out for a couple hours this afternoon while I mucked. BOY, did they run! Stella was a bucking fool, and Ernie was happy to follow suit. I lunged Stella in the indoor, with the intent only of allowing her to let some energy out in the most productive way possible. She, for whatever reason, gets anxious in that arena, so I have to really be quiet and calm and not react to her goofiness. She kept trying to canter in one particular spot while on the line, and I would just breathe out and ask her to slooooooowwwww. It took her a few minutes to really cue into me, but she eventually came around. I think she recognizes the arena as a place she has to work, and she gets overly-anxious of what I might ask, so she fills in the blank herself instead of waiting for me to cue. My goal is to get her to see the arena as a place where she goes to work, yes, but where I have her full attention. I need her to be confident that I will always let her know what to do and when to do it.

As for Ernie, the news isn't as positive. It's been about 3 weeks since I noticed his hips were out of alignment. The vet I used at school is a fantastic chiropractor, and he's scheduled to adjust Ernie this Tuesday. Once again, I feel like a terrible mom. Ernie hasn't been doing anything strenuous; he hasn't been ridden, trekked through steep terrain or pasture, or done anything more than fiddle around in the field. I think I underestimated how badly he needed chiropractic attention, because today I noticed a VERY distinct head jerking motion. If he had done it once or twice, I would have chalked it up to flies. But this continued the entire time I was there, whether he was rested, eating, walking, running, whatever. My guess is that he's been compensating for the misaligned hip, which has caused his spine to fall out of alignment, which has caused issues in his neck and poll. The poor horse couldn't stand comfortably at ALL. Needless to say, I'm very freaked. This has never happened before, and I think part of the problem is how tough this horse is. With any other horse, you'd see signs of discomfort far sooner than you would with Ernie. More often than not, by the time something becomes visibly wrong, he's far beyond just being a little off.

I'm also going to venture a wild guess and say this is the reason why he's been losing weight. He's been in pain.

Dr. Barry, my vet, is coming first thing Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Ernie is Buted more heavily than I'd like, but he'll stay on it until he's fixed up. I wanted to give him some Banamine paste this afternoon for a more immediate effect, but I don't have any. I used it all on Stella during all of her colics last spring.

My poor boy. My poor, poor boy.

Since I didn't have any pictures of them when they first got to the Co-Op barn, here's what I took today.



I promise this picture makes him look far thinner and worse than he actually is. I was hemming and hawing over whether to even put it up. It seriously looks like I just rescued him from a kill pen.


Mom, we want food!





I think Ernie felt slightly neglected after I took Stella up to work her, so he got to hand graze for an hour or so before I had to head back home. Yes, feel free to comment on my utter lack of safety consciousness; the fact that I'm sitting, the flip flops, the general lax attitude. I will admit I've been known to wear flip flops around the barn. I never do while mucking stalls, and very rarely when handling horses. Even then, it's only ever with my own. I never handle someone else's with anything other than boots of some sort. I think safety is important, and while it's probably bad bad bad, I do take a more relaxed posture with my guys. Yes, they are animals, yes, they are unpredictable, yes, they could spook at anything and everything even if they've seen it a million times. However, I've had Ernie for almost 10 years, and Stella for just over 1. I know Ernie's every quirk, fear and worry. I'm never surprised by that horse. Stella I know pretty well, but I do take more caution with her because of her lack of training and age.

Gosh, I'm a terrible owner. :/