Wow, I've seriously been slacking off in my blogging. And I've been told so by a few friends, so my apologies! I didn't realize I was such a hit! :-). I've been doing lots with the horses - especially Skittles - since the JF clinic... I guess I was truly inspired!
So in a nutshell:
Skittles was cornered and chased over/thru a fence last month (on Good Friday, actually, so you can probably guess at the vet bill that day!), and tore up her back leg again -- same exact injury of a couple of years ago when I first started this blog. She's now done the antibiotics and is just healing now. Still a big scabby scar, but definitely better. And she's sound, which is what is important.
Then I took the colts in to be gelded the first week of May (did tons of trailer loading the week
prior). All went well, but about 5 days later, poor Allegro swelled up and was barely able to move (he was stepping very gingerly). Poor guy. I took him back to the vet to have the swelling drained, then put him on antibiotics for a week. Luckily he loved the medicine/molasses mix I made for him and he literally would trot up to the gate for his daily dose. So he seems to be OK now.
We had another Parelli playday a few weeks ago at Sunset Stables which was fun. Amy, Beth and I tried out a couple ideas for a routine for the Horse Showcase coming up (this weekend!). We tried doing the circle game with all 3 horses together, but
poor trusting Chase (Beth's horse) came up behind Gypsy and got fired on with both barrels into his side and leg by Gypsy. So I guess Gypsy told us in no uncertain terms that she doesn't like horses behind her. I felt so bad! So that idea was out. Anyway, we did practice some other stuff -- mostly 7 games stuff in the arena, all with obstacles, put to music, and so we'll just keep all the horses at a safe distance! We played with lots of other cool obstacles, including a bank jump which Gypsy hadn't done before, as well as took a short ride through the pasture. Louise and Rascal came with us. It was great to see them again!
Shortly after that, Gypsy was chased over/thru a fence at home (same gelding who chased Skittles), and this time I saw it happen. When Gypsy got up on the other side, she was hopping on 3 legs and I nearly died. She came straight toward me (which was cool), and I found a large gash on her foreleg just above her knee. She had a scrape on her face as well, but nothing serious. The leg was the worst. I thought about getting the vet out to stitch her up, but decided to just let it heal. It'll take longer, but it'll heal. She was lame a couple days, but now is OK and I'm just giving her antibiotics and cleaning her leg every day. She doesn't like the medicine/mollasses mix as much as Allegro and frequently makes me play the "catching game" for quite a while before letting me catch her. She had her last dose last night.
I've been riding Skittles quite a lot in the last couple weeks (took her to a nearby arena). She's really coming along nicely and I'm very pleased with how level-headed she's becoming. For sure, she still has her spooky moments, but no bucking! Yay! The ground work up to now, added with another year of maturity, I think is what has really helped. I'll be taking her out on the trail next month for sure. Since I'm breeding Gypsy next month, I'm hoping Skittles will become my new solid riding horse. It's looking good!
I know this is a bit short, but hopefully I'll be more on top of the blogging in future! Sorry!
Chat later... it's finally sunny and I'm going out to play.
(also, camera is in for repairs, hence the lack of photos!)
Well, my camera is finally fixed! So I can post some photos of riding Skittles this morning. As I said in my previous post, she's been coming along wonderfully this month. So this is us from this morning at the Fultonvale arena. My son was home sick, so I asked him to come along and sleep in the truck (for safety reasons), and he ended 
up taking a few photos. We had a blast (me and Skittles, that is)! She started out snorty like she does in new situations, but after saddling her up and doing some ground work, she's settled down quickly. Then when I was riding her, she tended to want to avoid the corners, so we did the corners pattern (trotting/cantering up to the corners, then letting her stop). She wanted to go into the corners after that! However, we didn't stop in ALL the corners all the time, so she had to pay attention. I could tell she "asked" about stopping in the corners (by hesitating), but listened really well when I steered her to a different corner to rest.
After a while in the arena, we walked outside the arena because she seemed so curious about what was "out there". We walked around near the trees, around the arena and out onto the side road and back further down. We also tried jumping the loading ramp.... she did awesome! I'm having a blast with her this spring. She still has spooky moments, but I don't feel like she'll try to run away or buck anymore. She's definitely building curiousity and confidence. Looking forward to trying a trail ride with her soon!
