Perfectly Imperfect days

You know those days, when you should just stay home. 

I have moments of TOTAL klutzy behavior, where even I am stunned at the lack of coordination.

I digress..I decided on the way to my barn this past Tuesday, to stop at Kensington to pick up our bridle tag, which is what you need to ride the trails. 

It's free, but basically they assign your name to a tag and you ride with it attached to your horse.

If case of an 'unwanted separation' they know who the horse belongs too and etc etc

I pulled in for our first time

So beautiful!!!

 Don't worry (Mom) the road pictured below was a 25 mph and I was the only one on the road when I took the picture. Promise

A lake, a lake, a lake, a lake!!!
Swimming in our future for Laz and I-hopefully!!!!!!!!!

The lake is HUGE so there must be river areas to wade into..

Armed with my trail guide and our bridle tag

19 miles and 4 different horse routes to take! 

 This is where you cross over the main road, into the park, about 1.5 miles from my barn

No biggie.....right? gulp.
There are some other secret trails that the office lady told me about, a little closer to where I board, so hopefully soon, I can investigate!

Snark face!

 Laz and Scout....together...shocker

 Lazy eyes...happy boys in love.

 I decided to boot up Laz on hind only and go for a hand walk.

Damn, his RR ankle was a bit stocked up...not surprising being it rained all day/night the night before and I'm sure he chose to stand in his open stall mostly.  

(It did go down a bit after our walk)

 Heading out to the road, I turned quickly, rolled my ankle, fell into a thorn bush and slapped myself in the face with my lead rope. 

What!? 

Seriously...sigh. 

Thank god, Laz just stood there like "Ummm....huh....??"

Anyway, we saw off the dirt road a tiny little path/trail, so I thought....Hmmmmm, let's trespass, er investigate!

 WOW, it was beautiful!

Little mini paths and awesomely beautiful terrain around....whose path is this????

 Shiny poney

 We just kept going....further trespassing, shoot, I mean investigating, because...well, the trail led that way!!

 Munching along the way...

 I mean, this secret trail was some serious beauty...surely whomever cut this path WANTED horses on it???

 I started to feel like I was in a secret world...Narnia? 

Wait, or do I see a white rabbit?

 If this isn't a cool secret trail, I don't know what is!

 And all the way at the end...we saw something.
What is that? A rock? A landmark??
TREASURE?????

Oh crap......a hunting blind in full camouflage, ready to KILL

So we high TAILED it out of there!!

Here I have 2 brown animals and I wore brown today, and it's days before hunting season ON someone's personal property of what they obviously HUNT DEER (and chocolate labs and lame horses and greek girls) on!!!!

Sheeeyat!!!!!!

Damn....secret trail of heaven may be not open to us. 

I need to ask around and see......after hunting season.

So, we continued down the dirt road in public safety.

Mason was listening 0%.  

I don't know what was up with him. He was running around like a maniac, NOT listening, running up driveways and on people's property.

 I was literally screaming (great neighbors must love me) at him to come back, and he didn't even flick an ear back at me. TOTALLY IGNORED ME. Grrrr, totally frustrating and I was just really disappointed with him.  If he acts like this; I can't risk taking him with me out on the dirt roads. I can't walk him and Laz and surely not free while riding, if he acts up. We'll see what happens in the future.

 Laz was an angel.

Up until he refused to let me get his boot off. 

He kept slamming down his left hind and walking off. I kept backing him up and starting again. I really should have been a bit more ALPHA in this, because, our 2nd to last effort..

He slammed his left rear on my left foot and stood his FAT A** on me for like 20 minutes (real time 3 seconds). IT HURT...a lot. 

"What is going on today?" I thought

I yelled at him.  Yes, I'm not perfect..I yelled at my sweet lame horse! (held back the tears) and backed him up.  He lifted his leg up and let me yank his boot off finally.  He knew he made a mistake so I just let it go.  I HATE disciplining him but I also hate feeling my feet throb and wondering if it's broken. (Again, Mom..it's not, I used my xray vision)

Oh well...in the scheme of things...it was just an OFF day.

Don't we all have those.

And then I remembered...two years ago this week, my sweet perfectly imperfect boy got sick.
What do I have to complain about?
I still have him, he's happy, we are still trying valiantly to improve his feet and all the insane damage that was done.
It is the perfect day...I have my Laz.
Reality check.

I have no complaints

I love you my LazBoy!

Thank you for trying as hard as me to fix you. 

Every day is truly a lucky one.

Chiro for Laz...and me?!

No pictures, no videos...sorry!  Not like me, as I'm a designer therefore LOVE a good visual, but just didn't do it this week.  I'm sure I'll take some this weekend! :)

So, we are doing well.  Lazarus is moving, moving around and actually I think looks a little more ribby even than two weeks ago.  His moving is great and he really enjoys it.  He is shedding like a demon but still has a way to go, but his neck and shoulders are looking more thin and those long winter hairs are just coming out with my curry and shedding blade...hoorah! I love a summer coat!

He was enjoying his grooming today, but he is SO bothered by the two flies that kept landing on his face. Like literally looked like he was saying "Nooooo, No, Nooooo, no!" with his head that for a moment I thought...is something wrong with you?! But no..it's the flies. HE HATES bugs. I do have a fly mask for him but seems early for it...maybe not.  I didn't fly spray him because I want to ask Cliff about putting that on him.  That may sound silly but it's like this crazy effective spray that works so great, but smells SO toxic that now I worry about what it would do if/when it got into his bloodstream.  I have thought about getting Laz a fly sheet but I don't want to spend $100 or more on a sheet, and I worry the ones for the $39-50 range will just shred up.  Any suggestions!? That being said...there are HARDLY any bugs there.  Poops are constantly picked up and I watched one of the other horses who had three flies on his snout while he napped in the sun. Laz is crazy sensitive to that stuff.  So, so so thin skinned...literally and emotionally.

So, if you have any bug products that you like, or fly sheets, etc..send the suggestion our way!

So, we walked in the arena.  Warmed up and then I took his boots off.  The right rear he picks up so nicely and quickly for me.  The left rear, not so much.  For instance, after literally 10 minutes of asking/pulling/pinching he finally stepped forward and gave it up.

So we walked for about 17 minutes.  He was a bit spooky, but I kept thinking..god if I was riding you, I'm sure I would have fallen.  He side spooks and jumps up/turns so quickly that it's somewhat insane! He is so scared of the two arena corners some days..other days, it's like no big deal.  I've been allowing him to nibble the deadish grass in those scary corners as a reward but today, a few times, he lept out with a mouthful of grass, like "WHOA...did you see that?!?!"  On the bonus he didn't trample me which is a fear.  Bonus? Whatever..I'll take it.  But I need to figure out how to make him confident in those corners.  It's by the dirt road so there are sometimes monsters like; cars, people, white dogs, swaying cattails and such.  Is this where I reward him for walking by with a carrot niblet?  Seems that when I anticipate him doing well, he spooks, so then I can't reward.  I'm sure there is a simple solution..I just dont know it yet.  I'm hoping that the more time we spend in there, will help as well.

So, after our walk and letting his feet air out, I picked them clean and noticed he may have a couple of thrush spots.  I emailed Cliff who recommended a product called "Tomorrow" and I can get a generic version of it at TTS tomorrow, lol.  He said it's less expensive and just as good as White Lightening, so I'm all about less expensive right  now. I'll give it a go.  So, I also put Gold Bond's Medicated per Cliff, in his shoes to help fight against thrush.  Putting the boats back on, SUCKED today.  It took me about 25 minutes to get his left rear up and he was just being a jerk about it.  My back is wrecked right now. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was completely in a sweat and my arms and hands were shaking after the 50000 attempts of his semi lifting his foot and then just slamming his weight back down.  I know it has to do with that he probably thinks I can't hold him and he doesn't feel secure. Well guess what Laz, I can't hold you but I have to put this shoes on...so please, as you start to heal, please lift your legs!!!!!!!!  

This week has taken a toll on my back.  I'm trying to support his leg in between my knees while I pick, and then adjust to get the Easy boot on, but it's the literally picking up his foot that is wrenching me.  I have to grab at his ankle to lift it otherwise he just wont give it to me.  For his other three legs, he's a total angel. I even tried lifting the other legs, giving him a carrot niblet, then going to the demon leg and NOTHING.  

Sigh..it was frustrating and my sore back is making me mad.

When I get that Chiropractor for Laz, I may sneak in for a bit of work too

Ouch!

So this week was full of ups and one down.

Let's start with the positive:

1. I took Laz trail riding with my friend/trainer and her friend to Brighton State Park for our first time. So beautiful, trails with twisting paths, hilly sections and a little river we crossed. Lazarus did GREAT! He really enjoyed himself and we had a beautiful and relaxing trail for over 3 hrs!

2. He trailered nicely..which being an ex race horse, he is quite accustomed to a trailer, but you never know.

3. He played in the water at the river...actually quite aggressively pawed at it as if he were trying to empty all the water out of the river bed. I am not 100% sure if I like it or not...it was funny for a moment, but then also I felt him, feeling a little stallion-like and maybe nervous? He is the type of horse that drinks quietly but prior to his sips of water, he splooshes his head all around the water tank. BUT... crossed it, played in it and kept walking on.

4. He tied next to the trailer nicely when tacking up and un tacking.

5. He allowed me to mount up off a tree stump which he blew at and stood still.

The Negative:

1. Laz kicked me. HARD. Like a side blast from hell. It happened when we first arrived at the park prior to our 3 hr ride. I went to unload him from the trailer once we took my friend's horse out and he was being impatient (after being patient for a very long time I might add). We think maybe I spooked him, maybe he didn't know I was where I was...maybe he did and wanted to tell me he was pissed at that moment. He got me, I have a purple-red bruise on the back of my thigh the exact shape of his hoof. In fact, I can almost make out his frog imprint on my leg. Ugh. I called him a Bastard and moved on (and thanked god it was just my thigh and not something else). I will now be a little more careful, knowing he can and will kick and being that I was actually up by his shoulder; that his back leg can reach mighty far and with some major force.