New Saddle Racks

I made it back from my scrapbooking retreat in time to get out to the barn for a while in the nice weather. Really I'm not sure why it matters if the weather is nice or not when I end up just riding in the arena anyway. Oh well. When I arrived I noticed the tack boxes were outside in the driveway. I thought maybe they were new ones to be added or spring cleaning or something. But it turns out J&J picked up a couple racks from the sale they went to over the weekend so they cleaned out everyone's boxes and reorganized the tack room.

It's quite swank thought it means I had to cut down on the crap I had shoved in my box. Something I planned to do eventually anyway. Right now I'm down to my saddle and pads on the rack, my cooler got hung up with the other coolers in the aisle, bridles and halters and lunge line on the hooks, grooming tote on the shelf, and my orange bucket with bute, treats, boots, and my dressage whip. I was thinking of getting a bin or something instead but the bucket might work just fine. We'll see.

So I cleaned up Axel while Steele was in the aisle getting ready as well. His rain rot doesn't seem to be getting any worse and I was able to scrape off almost all of the remaining scabs with the metal curry. I'm not sure if it's from the rain rot or just dirt in general but that metal curry really brings some crap to the top. Guess I should use that more often. The mud has finally disappeared more or less so cleaning legs and hooves wasn't a chore either. We didn't spend a lot of time in the arena riding. We usually end up chatting more. When J and Steele were done we did a bit of trotting. Axel was pretty sound actually. I asked for a canter but just got the usual hop, skip, jump, and stop. I have a hard time deciding just how hard to push him or not. Will he be sore the next day? Will the exercise be better for him than just standing around? Does it matter if we ease into it or not? Ug.

I cleaned up Cody when I was done with Axel. His scabs weren't coming off as easily so I thought I'd wait til after we rode and maybe he'd be warmer and they'd be easier to remove. I gave him a bit of his extra food but saved the rest for after our ride. He's got a little cut on the left side of his lower lip. He wouldn't really let me look at it but it didn't seem to be bothering him and it wasn't in a spot to interfere with a bit. So we rode around the arena for a while. He wasn't as excitable as he has been in the arena but he wasn't a complete bump on a log either. We trotted and I asked for the canter. Still having issues with that left lead. I'm starting to feel okay enough to keep asking him to keep the canter going even if he speeds off. I think I want to work on maintaining the gait and when we have that down we'll work on relaxing more and not zooming around. We did make it around maybe one and a half times without stopping. We followed it up with some roll backs on the rail. He's not quite rocking back on his hind quarters but he picks up the canter and stops on a dime. It's really nice knowing he'll go really fast but stop when you ask. So when we were done he got the rest of his food and I ended up getting most of his scabs off while he grazed in the yard.

The real news of the day was that Vinnie and Axel have come to some sort of truce. When I was haltering Axel, Vinnie walked right up to us, not afraid or hesitant at all. Axel didn't even put an ear back and normally something like me haltering him would not have stopped him from chasing another horse, he's not very respectful in that way. So apparently Axel is warming up to little Vinnie. When I brought Cody back out from the arena Axel and Vinnie were standing next to each other. I wish I would have gotten a photo. J says to keep an eye out to make sure Vinnie's not eating their tails but I don't think they are that good of friends yet. I'll be surprised if they ever get to that point.