When it Rains it Pours

Of course, everything always has to happen at once. As soon as I signed up for a show, Jetta started being AWFUL. Like, we hadn't had that bad of rides for many years. We completely lost all semblance of a half-halt and she literally couldn't do anything.

"How does one horse?" At least she's looking good!

After blundering around for 3 days, I realized that our half-halt was the main reason we were being a complete train-wreck in every aspect, so we reinstalled that. You'd think she'd have a solid half-halt after 8 years of being under saddle, but apparently not...

We're still working on it, but at least we're not completely awful anymore. Just slightly awful. So maybe we won't be a complete embarrassment at the show this weekend? Just a little embarrassing probably.

I tried to have a stirrup-less ride before it all went downhill. Do not recommend

At least our matching is on point!

We finally got our new vienna reins (more on that in another post) so we've been doing a fair bit of lunging. Even on the lunge line she just wants to go go go, so we're working on slowing down and stretching, hoping that will translate to under saddle.

Love this place

The most stretching we're getting right now

I'm bummed that of course this happened once I sent several non-refundable checks for the show and clinic, especially since I am SO EXCITED about them, but oh well.

Horses. So frustrating, it seems like we're always taking two steps forward then three steps back!


And then of course Maisie had to make sure she got enough attention too. She got her vaccine boosted on Sunday and then Tuesday night I tried to feed her grain and she wasn't interested. She's the pickiest, least food-motivated horse I've ever interacted with, but usually she tries to eat a little grain, plus she just looked out of it. So I took her temperature and found it to be a whopping 104F. Just peachy. I talked to one of the doctors at school and came to the conclusion that it was probably a vaccine reaction and gave her some banamine. An hour later she was still uncomfortable, but her temp was dropping, so that made me feel better.

She is now back to normal termperature, but still not interested in food, so I'm not sure what's with that. We did just recently switch grain to something better suited for a growing baby (per my recent nutrition class, which was AWESOME! I may need to do a post about it), so I'm not sure if she just doesn't like the grain or if there are lingering GI effects. She got a dose of probiotics, so we'll see how it goes from here.

And to top it all off, my BF and I decided to drive 8 hours to get a puppy last weekend. I fell in love with an Akita a few years ago and found a litter up for adoption. I loved one of the girls and they agreed to put her on hold and now we have little baby Kaida. So of course, who needs sleep around here?

She slept and cuddled the whole ride home

Loves rolling in the gras

Champion at walks

Puppy + sick baby horse + awful acting adult horse + majorly awful midterm + life in general = no sleep, lots of stress.