Barn Night

(Rusty and his bff Inky)

First horse oriented thing I did today was take my disgusting stable blanket and my friend Ellen's stable blanket and turn out to the tack shop to drop off for washing on my lunch break. I don't think the tack shop lady is super impressed with being the drop off spot for these stinky blankets. Her first questions were, "Are they in clean garbage bags? Are they sealed up?". Luckily my answer to both questions was yes! I didn't tell her that I had bought the garbage bags at the dollar store and they may disintegrate from the fumes at any second. So the blankets are on their way for a washing, finally...

Ellen and I headed up to the barn after work today. The first of many proposed car pools to come. Saving gas and having a buddy to ride with are always pluses.

We got the ponies out and started tacking up when I noticed that Rusty had a nice bit of hair missing right at his left hock and a cut below that. His leg was a little hot and a little swollen. Oh great. I decided to go ahead and saddle him up and see if he was favoring it at all. We got out in the arena and did some lunging, he was good to go. The movement helped to take down the small amount of swelling that was there.

With Inky working in the arena we had a little bit more distraction than normal. We were also coming off of a two day break so Rusty was feeling a little fresh, distracted, and tense. All in all we had a nice ride. After we were both done with our work in the arena we hit the trails. It was right at dusk so the trails were a little dark even with the big full moon. The horses were brave little soldiers though and just kept their ears on high alert and headed out into the night. Rusty seems to be enjoying his new trail experiences. He practiced leading more tonight and even did a little leading at the trot! A very tentative trot, but still a trot!

After our ride I attempted to cold hose Rusty's leg, but realized I don't know how to have cold water only in the wash rack. All I could manage was luke warm, which sort of defeated the whole purpose. So I cleaned out his little cut and put some medication on it. I'll have to text the barn trainer/manager/friend of mine to check in on him in the morning. Hopefully it won't look like much and all will be well... Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we're heading out a little earlier to the barn, probably do the same as today, a little arena work followed by some trails. Sort of the perfect ride...