Muddin'

I have returned from the Mighty Mississippi river valley!  I had a lovely vacation with family and friends.  I have missed blogging and I have some projects lined up that I hope to share with you, including the more photogenic parts of my trip. 

I had a hoof trim scheduled for the morning after I got back so I went early knowing the Junebug would be filthy.  Adding 100 degree temps, fly spray, sweat and dry dusty paddocks to the usual amount of horsey goo does not make a clean horse.  He seemed happy to see me, right up until I led him into the wash stall and turned on the clippers.  

But I like my overgrown bridlepath, makes me look punk!

Other than a few new scrapes on his head from trying to crawl out and eat grass underneath the fences, he fared very well over the month.  Filthy from head to hoof, though, even his usually very white face!

Our farrier said his hooves look great, best he's seen in a while actually.  It's nice to have an oak-footed horse!  After his trim he got a good solid bath and a sheath cleaning.  He's getting more tolerant of that each time.  He raised a back leg a lot, but never pushed or kicked.  I got a bean out, not quite as big or dense as the last one but enough to remind me why I have to subject both of us to this barf-inducing activity.  

I'm trying to jump back into riding, we'll see how it goes.  I rode Thursday (had a wedding Fri/Sat) Sunday, and Monday.  A little stiffness in the lower back but not prohibitive.  I even decided yesterday to brave the "trail" on the property, but there was a low limb covered in army worms so we turned back, much to Junior's relief.... treeeeeees!!!!!!  AUGHHHHH!!!!

We even ventured over to the pond.  He still gets nervous and wheels around to go home, but he is manageable.  The ducks came to visit, provoking a good amount of snorting, but he got over their presence.  It was very muddy at the edge so it was good practice for future cowboy challenges.  He did as he was told, but for fear of getting him stuck (Don't need any Artex moments) I didn't ask him to linger in any one spot, instead we walked semi-circles in and out of the water, splashing and snorting all the while, but he did as he was told and received much praise.  

It's very difficult to tell (when I'm mounted) how deep the mud is and how deep the water is once it's stirred up, but he was wet up to his belly and there was mud on my irons. I did see one hoof print in the mud that went down about a foot.

Yes, I washed the girth cover.

So he got a nice hose-down afterwards.  Not sure about those lines halfway down his hooves.  I didn't scrub them so I don't know if they'd disappear if I did.  I suppose it's evidence of the scrubbing and polishing he got for the show, but it looks like more growth than early May-now doesn't it?  Perhaps it's from our feed switch last August?  Or from the bug supplement we added in March?  You have any other ideas?