Happy Time

Spring has sort of come . . . and gone . . . and is thinking about maybe coming again.  The grass is green and long and I'd cheerfully go out and mow it if only there weren't standing puddles of water everywhere.  Plenty of April showers will hopefully mean nice pasture all year; May flowers are simply a bonus.

Those cute fuzzy babies are big, rambunctious yearlings now, still eating everything in sight and growing well.  Both are going to be heading to their respective homes and futures within the next couple of weeks.  I will miss their baby shenanigans and cute little faces.  But it will be nice to have a barn full of adult horses again.  Two years on broodmare/nursery duty has cured me of the breeding bug temporarily.

Bonnie did just one event last year after a maybe-abscess, maybe-sidebone sort of NQR spell during the spring last year.  She had the "out to grass for three months" cure and has been as sound as a dollar (well, maybe that term is outdated) since.  She went around Beginner Novice like an old veteran last fall--her only outing--and even won the thing.  I was hopeful that the Novice horse I bred would have permanently settled into her destiny as such.  Well, that remains to be seen.  After an uneventful XC school earlier this month, her 1st "real" Horse Trial since 2009 was somewhat of a bust.  Erika made a dressage pony out of her, as always, to score a 30.9 in dressage, and SJ was clean and uneventful, but as she has done from time to time all of her life, Bonnie had a mental "check out" on XC, spooking at the trees, the wind, whatever was handy, and although they got around, it wasn't clean OR pretty and so at age 11 Bonnie is still needing to be ridden like a green horse every now and then.  I'm not really making any excuses for her--she is a horse that likes to work, likes to go to shows and more or less likes XC, but not one that LOVES XC.  Which is a pity, since I do best with one that LOVES it. (who doesn't?)   However, I am still hopeful that we can have some fun together and she is going to an unrecognized Novice in a few weeks and if she redeems herself, the Novice Three Day at the Indiana EA Horse Trial in June.  Maybe steeplechase, no matter how watered-down, will unearth her inner XC machine.  Regardless, she is a fun horse to have and is a dear member of the family.

Speaking of FUN, and XC MACHINES.  Keebler has been working like a trooper for six weeks since getting the final blessing from Dr. Stick.  He will warm up a little stiff now and then, but after a few minutes is happily bouncing along, nice and steady.  All that ACE he needed over the winter?  Gone.  Earplugs for sanity?  Gone.  Cranky faces?  Mostly gone.  He is who he is, after all.  But his ears are up, his eyes are bright, he's not looking for trouble, and is even lazy once in a while.  To what do I credit this change?  Well, probably a lot of things: coming off months of stall rest for one, turnout with some hooligan gelding buddies for another, and he isn't hurting like he was.  But if I look at all the things that happened within the past couple of months, I have to give a lot of credit to the Omeprazole Direct "blue pop rocks" that he has been getting on and off for about the past 6 weeks.  He hasn't been scoped, but I'm pretty sure Keebs has had his share of ulcers or at least gastritis from time to time.  Long story short, he's absolutely thriving on this medication, and although it may seem a little shady to be getting medications from Vanuatu or India, I'm personally satisfied that the product is what it's claimed to be and the price is very competitive with all of the worthless supplements that are out there.

And here's a picture of the happy boy himself from today.  Why is this horse smiling?  Well, for the first time since early July of 2010, the spotted boy got to J-U-M-P!  It was only a 2'3" vertical, and he only did it about eight times, but he did it sound, happily, and with his usual gusto for the "non dressage" stuff.  It's still a long road back to a cross country course, but today's was a big, sound step. 

Progress, progress, and miscellaneous blather

I know I'm supposed to take the challenge and write about something besides horses.  And it's not like I don't have anything else on my mind.  But I allow the horse indulgence free rein (if you'll pardon the pun) because I figure it keeps me sane and humble, whereas I can't quite bring myself to start blogging about philosophy or the sucking quagmire between belief and knowledge (my favorite place to hang out; I quite like quagmires) or how Evan pondered the likelihood (at dinner tonight) that "eating alphabet soup would probably give a nice boost to my vocabulary".  Which is already that of an adult.  Minus the four-letter words.  He's tempted, goodness knows he hears them quite regularly.  And goodness knows I pull no punches and give him accurate definitions of each of them when he asks.  (one of the perks of parenthood)  But I also told him that if he uses bad language in front of people who actually care (meaning, everyone but me and maybe a couple of his uncles) then he'd best be prepared to accept the consequences.  He is averse to punishment, so I think we're safe.  For a while.  If and when he begins swearing like a sailor, I'll have only myself and my own potty mouth to blame.  Oh dear.  Or, rather, oh $@&*#(!!.

Well, I tried.  That was kind of fun.  I shall try to pace myself and save further trackless mental meanderings for later.  Other than to mention that if there is no NFL football next year I am going to mutilate myself.  Two days since the last game and I am counting the days until training camp . . .

What's new?  Well, for a solid month I was doing P90X and it is quite effective and butt-kicking, but ultimately . . . a complete bore.  I effing HATE to exercise for the sake of exercise!  At 45 it's just no longer possible to keep up, however, between the last days of fall and the first days of spring without the normal farm chores to keep me fit.  Since I hate winter only slightly less than I hate exercising, there is no screwing around outside in January looking for extra chores to do.  It's get 'em done, and get back inside to un-freeze.  So something has to take the place of mucking, hauling, digging, currying, riding, shlepping, climbing and all the other stuff between December and April.  Back at it tomorrow, for sure.  Stupid Tony Horton, I'd like to kick him in the nuts.  Maybe I'll turn the volume down and put on Gogol Bordello instead.  That should perk me up! 

I am studying for my Cardiology board recertification.  Which takes place TWO DAYS after our spring vacation.  Yay, I get to haul three books the size of the Yellow Pages with me to the Bahamas and sit there and read them.  Well, the sitting in the Bahamas and reading part is great, but the subject matter, although quite OK in general, is hardly vacation-esque.  Thank goodness I can put some of it on the iPad.  Without which I think I would feel as though half my soul had been amputated, since you were wondering.  I can now let my iPhone out of my sight for short periods of time.

Well hey, four whole paragraphs of that!  Sorry.

OK, the horses. :-)

Keebler is coming along very nicely.  Dr. Stick gets a monthly "video consult" and the latest made him very optimistic.  Keebs can now move along to trotting more and more, no real limit there, just as tolerated.  I didn't ask him about cantering--he popped up dead lame after I sort of let him get away with a 10-second canter a couple of weeks ago (perfectly fine the next day, probably an adhesion) but he's allowed to go out now if he's drugged halfway to oblivion.  Which is how he's spent about every waking moment out of his stall since September, poor guy!  He's handling turnout well (thanks to "vitamin A" which I've been buying by the tub) and acting less foolish the more "horse time" he gets.  Can't wait to get him back to normal Keebler naughtiness instead of boredom-induced Keebler naughtiness.  There IS a difference, and I will welcome the  smarter-than-he-should be horse trying to out-think me over the bored, frustrated one trying to dump me with OPEN ARMS.

Bonnie is doing fine, mostly hanging out and eating with too much work (mine), too little warmth in the atmosphere, and not enough motivation (mine!) to keep her constantly working.  She's doing enough to stay fit, is just an easy horse to pick up again with when the weather improves, and we are aiming for the Novice 3-Day at the IEA Horse Trials in early June, if all goes well.

The weanlings, Oli and Lilly, are eating me out of house and home, destroying my barn and fences, and pestering the poor pony to death.  Status quo--their job is growing and eating and they are excelling at both.  I could do without the broken fence posts, gnawed sills, flung halters/feed pans/buckets/ropes/bags, and disarticulated gates.  I think I've been temporarily cured of the baby-horse bug with these two goofballs around!  Thank goodness they're like grandkids--dearly loved and welcome, but I can send them home when I get tired of them, given the fact that neither one belongs to me! :-)