May 2023 Wrap Up

Ben: 

Ben has been through the ringer a bit since the start of March. We FINALLY have his feet happy. He's not shifting his weight back and forth on hard ground, and he is off of the Equioxx. He is jogging sound on the hard, uneven driveway. He got his neck and withers shockwaved a week ago and got his stifles injected yesterday. When we jogged him before the stifles yesterday morning he was sound and flexed sound, but we went ahead with the injections because he was resistant to half-halts under saddles and wanting to go wide behind. In a few days we get to start rebuilding fitness. He has been in low level work this month when he's been sound, a few flat sessions and hacks (4 hacks, 1 dressage lesson, 3 training rides). And he's still been turned out the whole time, so we are not starting from ground zero at least. But again, we get to spend the hottest part of the summer rebuilding rather than taking some time off since he had the pleasant spring weather off. 

Throwing it back to when we were doing things

He's just gorgeous and the magic hour light is quite nice too 

Goggles: 

• 6 lunging sessions - 3 at home with me, 3 at JT's in the pessoa
• 10 rides including 
• His FIRST cross country schooling! He was a super good boy and so brave!! 
• 2 lessons - his first under saddle canter and hundreds of walk-trot transitions
• 1 ride at home where NEW horses were in his field 
• 3 short ventures off property 
• 5 groundwork sessions - 2 trailer loading, 2 emotional regulating off property, and 1 in hand trotting over some jumps with me, he's so cute with that 
• Scope and his first chiro session - we're almost done with his month of 1/2 tubes of gastrogard and then it will be time to schedule his recheck scope 

Overall it was a very interesting month for him and me. We upped the ante in a few ways of expectations and activities, and while he stepped up to meet the challenge in a lot of areas, I think I pushed a bit too far too fast with the trailering. He was more anxious on the drive to and from Majestic than he had been; going without a friend was too much for him at this point. Noted. He's a smart, sweet baby though, and we continue to learn together. 

We're still learning on the weight front too. I bought him his own alfalfa to have in the stall instead of the coastal or orchard. He's still somewhat disinterested and does a lot more spreading it around than eating it. Thanks buddy, that stuff is super cheap. He's on TC complete - 2 scoops AM and PM and 1.5 scoops with a full scoop of soaked alfalfa cubes for lunch. He is an ACTIVE baby though. The field at the GY's is 7-8 acres and he bops around that pretty much constantly. Not that he doesn't settle and eat some, but he loves to go harass the other horses. At least the pasture is really good quality right now given his lack of interest in hay. But I really would love if he gained enough weight to have a shot at building a topline. 

Cutie pie