Day Two

And Not Quite A Busy

But my vet did come this morning, just at nine AM, as scheduled. I love this vet office. It is the first one I've ever dealt with in my 40+ years of horse experience where the vets almost always--barring unexpected emergencies--show up on time.

Basically, it was Coggins tests for everyone, spring vaccinations for all and teeth and sheath for Chance.

All my Boys are the best for the shots and blood draws. Toby is an absolute gentleman, Tucker is delightfully polite, and Chance was quite angelic. All was well.

Then Dr. Perez gave Chance some tranquilizer for the teeth floating and she began. Well, apparently, Chance has a fast metabolism. He was good for quite a while and then started to fuss. OK, another dose of tranquilizer and we nearly made it to the end before he started protesting again. He wasn't dangerous or mean, just resistant, shaking his head around and trying to stretch up out of reach. The doctor stopped before she did her most perfect job, but was satisfied that all the points were gone and his teeth were even. We had to laugh, though, when she cleaned his sheath because then he just hung his head and stood quietly.

The strangles vaccine is given through spray up the horses' noses. Chance made a terrible face for that as did Tucker. Toby was good again, but was mightily insulted or else his feelings were hurt because he would not respond to cuddles from either Dr. Perez or me afterward and even refused to eat a treat or and apple from the doctor as a peace offering. He was really pouting.

Dr. Perez will be back on April 28 to do the second doses, so I guess I'd better get a big bag of carrots for Toby. We need to keep up good relationships with our vets!!

I'll admit it, I took an afternoon nap and then went out to ride--vacation mode in full force.

I schooled Tucker in the ring for about 25 minutes where the "walk" command from the canter really seems to have solved the simple change problem. While the transitions are not perfect, he certainly does seem to understand now, so I short order we will have conquered that second level hurdle. Once done, we headed out on the trail.

This time I took the longer route and he was quite happy about that. When we reached an intersection in the middle of the woods, he headed right, off towards the lake. I just let him choose and he was really pleased. When we got to the trail around the lake, we took the hill option, past the "killer boulder" which he simply ignored--the star!!--and walked along the ridge back to the trail home. Great ride!

I took Toby out next and decided to see if we could make it around the lake. The ATV's have made all kinds of ruts out there and the water has filled in to cover them leaving big expanses of muddy water with questionable footing underneath. Somehow we managed to make it to the halfway point before we were forced to wade, but I must admit, Toby is one good "water" horse--akin to both Russell and PJ. We were just fine with his careful maneuvering getting us safely through. Our only little episode was a spot where a fisherman was standing with his chair and equipment on the other side of the trail. I don't think the guy spoke English too well because I tried to warn him to watch out since I felt that Toby was going to spook at the chair which would have put him in the guy's lap. Fortunately, I guess Toby figured that out too and when the man stood rooted in the danger zone, the Wobester adjusted his spook so he didn't kill the guy.

Since there was a darn ATV racing around out there, I decided to keep Chance in the ring again. This time, his head was either out or down about 95% of the time, with perhaps only one time when he raised it up all the way. He is definitely testing to see where he feels comfortable and also to see what my reaction is to his stretching. As I predicted, he is going to figure it out in short order and once he does, the steering and control will improve enormously. Once they do, I will be able to try some cantering without worrying about crashing into things. *G*

All in all, day two of vacation was a winner.