Music to my ears!

Well not literally, but we're sound!!! Yay!!!! I guess his problem is just stating inside too much when it's hot out! (anyone else have that problem with their horse?)
He was feeling really stiff lately and we ended up putting up a 20" box fan on the front of his stall (it helps keeps the flys out) and we had him on bute for a day or two and he felt better in no time at all! :) there is always a reason my friends! A reason for everything that happens to us in this life time! Of that I am convinced!
But since then we have been training for our September Show (on the 1st and 2nd) trying to get days that aren't too hot or raining and trying to school up to 3' in a group is kinda hard:/ but I don't really have the money to do privates yet:/ I need a job so badly!
But it will all work out! You must always say that, even when you aren't sure if things are really possible, you have to commit and say "yes, yes they are and they'll find a way!" so I have faith!
Always have faith

Cookin with fire

Well kinda, 100 degree day again... So what happens, we get a hose down, a little graze time and mostly 45 mins in front of the fan and a little spray down with some our "special voodoo spray" lol that's what CK calls it at least
It's a homemade liniment, made with witch hazel, wintergreen rubbing alcohol and water. The rubbing alcohol evaporates faster in front of the fan and the wintergreen keeps him cool. So it works for him! Kinda :) but it can attract bugs so some fly spray goes on with that as well!
But so far we haven't had a chance to figure out if he's lame, he walks out fine but I'll run out there tomorrow morning and see what we've got and figure it out what's really goin on with him.
We'll figure it out, we always do

And so it continues...

Remember how I said it could get way worse?
Mysterious lames-ness, does that fall under the category of "way worse"?
Ugh, god love horse ownership sometimes... Don't get me wrong, the good things always out weigh the bad things but good lord it does find a way of always raining on your parade!
Well again I must say it could be worse because it most definitely could be,
Last year around June Cash came up with lymphangitis from his right hind hock down a day before I was supposed to leave for Europe for 2 weeks. While I was gone he had some basic exams done and an x-ray at the barn, the vet said that they could see something in there but they weren't sure so I should schedule an appointment with the equine hospital (which is right up the road lucky us) when I am back in the country.
Once I had got back from vacation they had the swelling down, he had been being hand walked and was going alright but was still significantly lame in his back left leg, so into the trailer and up the road we went!
Dr. V our wonderful wonderful vet at the hospital preformed the lameness exam and took X-rays and found that at 8 years old Cash has a bone chip in his hock... Yea... It's just as awesome as it sounds :( and at the place it's at it is nearly in-operable without having to completely butterfly open his hock and him be completely stall bound for up to 4 months...
But there was good news to this! Cash's hocks haven't fused yet and chip is small enough that there is a high possibility that as his hocks fuse the chip will fuse back as well! So there was no need for surgery! But he would need hock injections, it was likely that he would deal with arthritis for quite sometime.
So, now that story time is over you know that he has one stick hock (honestly never slows him down) so generally when he comes up lame it's do to this... The only problem with this is that you normally get horses hocks done about every 6 months well... Cash got his done in March, he's not due for another two months at least and he normally goes at least 8 between getting them done.
I'm not sure if it's the heat (it's been hotter then hell up here in the western suburbs the last few weeks) or what! I mean I see no obvious or slightly less obvious signs of anything!
Driving me crazy and making me feel like a bad mom because I don't know what's wrong :(
But CK (my trainer) is up at a show is weekend and won't be back till Tuesday :/ hopefully I can text her and see what she says to do before then.

I'll keep updated though, hopefully we'll figure this out

Seriously? He's alone for two days...

So, here in the western suburbs of Chicago our 4th of July weekend was in the 90-100 range from Wednesday to Saturday... When did I leave my horse for the ONLY vacation that I have over the summer? Yep right then... So checking in with his "nanny" for the short period of time while I am in mid/upper Wisconsin (green bay area) she has everything under control, which she does! But she cannot check on him on Saturday and I ended up getting home later then I thought I would on Sunday, two days alone normally would not kill him! But lordy I got to him today and he has proceeded to rub off a nice little bald patch on the top part of his tail (the boy doesn't have much tail to begin with!), he has gotten thrush in all four hooves, removed most of the hair from the sides of his face and become slightly dehydrated... Covered in dried sweat and dirt the poor thing looked like a rescue case to me! So of course crack out the Koppertox for his feet and the Shapely's M-T-G for his tail and Batadine, baby oil and water concoction for his face. Check to see if the new fan that I pain-stakingly just installed in his stall is still up... Nope, doing no good in the box again on the tack room floor! ohhhhh good sweet Jesus! I could kick someone in the face...
All I could really do at the point was shower him off, give him some needed TLC from his momma and hope that tomorrow will be a better day...
Christ.... This is why I never go on vacation because every time I do I come back and he's worse then I left him! Ugh...
Maybe I just need to pick a different time of year...
I must always remember though
It could be waaaaay worse....

New kid!

Alright! Totally new to this whole blog business (writing my reading) but I figured that over the last 10+ years of my riding career that must have some kind of useful knowledge for the equestrian community! But this will probably also come to cronical the daily like of myself and my 9 year old appendix gelding "All In" or he'll mostly go by his barn name Cash, as we take on the next year(or more) in the big show rings of the Northern Illinois Hunter Jumper (NIHJA) Circuit and the Illinois Hunter Jumper (IHJA) Circuit! Hopefully those who read will find this helpful and at some points amussing as we reach highs and inevitable lows in our career together and maybe even share some tips and tricks that we pick up along the way!