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 Pulling into the barn (this was about a few weeks ago), out in the distance, there are two frolicking horses. Laz is one of them. I always let out a sigh of happiness to see him romping around happy with so much room to play.

Look, my horse is the naked unloved one! lol

My Husband always questions "Why wouldn't you just blanket him?? Isn't he cold??" until he touches him and feels how HOT he is.

I'm not anti blankets.  

But Laz isn't clipped, has a thick fur coat and is at a great body weight, so I'm testing out leaving him BE.

 

So far, he's been only winter blanketed once.

"HA Ro"

Just like a stack of pancakes that are powder sugar dusted..YUMMY PONEE!

I'll eat you!

He loved this little blizzard (which lasted all of an hour)

 I like the snow to help keep his hooves cool and iced 24/7

Thanks Nature!

 OTTB channeling a wild Mustang

SNORT!

I think this Florida bred baby likes our Michigan weather

       

I did bring Laz in, toweled off the blanket of wet snow and seriously contemplated blanketing him.

But he was SO warm/hot that I thought it would almost be a disservice because then he can't self regulate his own body temps. 

I have to remind myself ALL.THE.TIME; he has great shelter, a great natural fur coat, plenty of hay...he is OK. 

Once I was done drying him, I put him in the stall so he could walk out, and he decided to coat himself some more. 

A good roll in soft shavings

"Now I's dry!"

Yesterday, it was about 15 degrees with the wind chill stating it was close to 0.

I was slightly concerned (I'm getting better) and thought to check to see if Laz was warm enough, and thinking I may blanket him with his winter rug.

Well...he was SO warm. Like ear tip to tail-WARM. Like HOT, like bury my bare hands and feel the tingly burn of a toasty fat horse's heat. Ahhh

So, I left him (gasp) NAKED!

 Do I doubt myself? 

Yes, all the time. 

I keep the blankets at the barn, and question myself, but I try try try to trust he has what he needs: hay, shelter, good body weight, thick fur coat unclipped.

As you can see...this is Laz during his mid morning nap, after he gulped down his BP slurpee mix

ZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZ

 ZZzzz, a couple of soft "mmmmmm" and licking and chewing, with slight head drooping.

 If I could, I would bundle this sleepy babe in a blanket and snuggle him UP on my couch.

Look at those half mast eyes!

 Mmmm, sweet horse's breath indeed

Enjoy your nap fat boy!

Pin-cushioned babes

Laz and I walking down the dirt roads.

They've been especially wet and cushy so I though/hoped the different terrain would be good for his hooves to walk on, while still being comfortable

His Right Hind medial sole still shows some bruising as that hoof wall continues to grow down, but not yet hitting the ground. HURRRRRRY up hoof wall (trust me, he's on all supplements, vitamins, hoof lotions and potions to get it to grow..it's time)

 

On Thursday, we had our 2nd Chiro/Acupuncture visit from the AMAZING Dr. W.

We lurve him

He's cool, humble, SMART and awesome

Did I mention, we like him?? 

LOTS

What I like best about him; His quiet ability to listen to the animals.

Also, Laz loves his treatments and stands still and quiet for him.

Above is after the Chiro work, Dr W is putting the Accu needles in Lazaroo.

Then he follows it with a shot of B12 vitamin to help 'keep' the adjustment

He thought Laz was looking really good and was happy. 

I am to keep working on stretching out his R Front shoulder to help break up that scar tissue, but he thought it's already looking a bit better.

Go, us!

Then, I had him look at Mason

Masie Pie is 8 yrs old (9 in May) so I thought it couldn't hurt

Dr. W thought his hips were off a little (actually similar to Laz, lol) and adjusted him.

He didn't feel anything bad in his hips otherwise

Mason was a VERY good patient 

"Uh...Mom...who dis??"

Dr. W confirmed my suspicions (without me telling him!) that Mason left front leg was hurting him.

Mason has been limping a little, and it's inconsistent. Some days it's there, some days he's fine. For the past month or so, I've stopped throwing his ball/frisbee because he runs with 10000% speed and then slams to stop and it's wearing on his joints.

At any rate, Dr. W found a bit of pain in Mason's left elbow area.

See how below, Mason's face is relaxed...

 And here he quickly stopped breathing, shut his mouth and showed signs of "ouch"

Glucousime will be added to his diet, per wondrous Dr. W.

 Wagging his tail during his 2 minutes of acupuncture

Can you see his needles? They are the same as the ones used for humans 

He has 7 here, and had 2 or 3 near his shoulder/elbow area

 We also chit chatted about vaccinations, etc.

He prefers to do Rabies for Dogs (and he's waiting on testing to be released that perhaps we only have to do that once every 5-7 yrs) and for Horses, annually : Rabies, Tetanus, and West Niles combo.  They said, "Those three could kill your horse and it's a terrible death."

Something to really consider for Laz coming up...it's the same three my new Vet thinks I should do too.

Laz is clearly benefiting from this extra TLC

Video of Laz and his WB X bestie

Oh, and for those that wanted to see how Laz kicks it in reverse to try to 'sit' on his friend, zoom to 0.37.  He does this maneuver all the time, lol

Mason was a bit extra tired after his appointment. He tends to get excited over new things, and I knew it would knock him out a bit.  But, later that night, he seemed re-energized and prancey

Pudgie wants to know if I'm going stick pins in him too ;)

Not yet littlest one...

Riding on

 Drool

This footing makes Laz super happy to move out on.

One day, I hope he can trot out like this on any surface

I'd like it if he was landing more heel first vs toe, BUT I'll take that nice forward stretch in his right shoulder. 

Yea! 

Maybe that means all that stretching our Chiro showed us in paying off? 

I'll find out when he revisits this Thursday

I hopped up for a quick ride on Saturday, it was JUST TOO beautiful of a day to not.

I wore my old helmet while I wait for new to arrive

This field is FUN to ride in.

There are small hills that are great for walking, trotting, etc

BUT..it is also a field that excites Laz

 LOTS of room to romp in, and the last few rides, his attention on me have been less than stellar

 I did A LOT of walking, turning, stopping , backing up, walking out, etc.

I did ask for a trot a few different times and I got two bucks at my first ask, which I responded with more leg to push him forward and then by attempting to half halt him to get him to lower neck. He does this thing where he acts like he's behind the bit (even though we ride bitless, but you get the idea) and then head shakes/bucks. Once I push him past it, I get a nice lovely trot...but I'm NOT enjoying the bucks or bad behavior. I need to figure out WHY and then address it

For me, it's hard to rule out that it isn't something 'hurting' him and he's telling me, OR is it excitement, freshness? There is a FINE line between the two.

He's not pinning his ears, or kicking out, it's just like he puffs his chest, arches his neck and wants to buck BIG but offers a smaller buck.  The only problem is, the last time, he gave a few little bucks followed by a bigger one that unseated me

 I intend to get some video so I can SEE what is going on.

 After our ride, I decided to walk out on the smushy dirt road, since it's been MONTHS for some  trail hacking variation in our riding.

Laz was more alert, but like I said..it's been months so to be expected. He did great though, no spooks and even walked up to a large trash can to 'touch it.'

 We walked out to where the deer often hide but didn't see any

We walked through the brush and Laz snuck a couple of bites.

And then Mason channeled his inner OTTB and started racing around us

 In circles, alllll around us. 

Good thing it doesn't bother Laz

 Go Masie!! He's 8 and still thinks he's 3

Having fun, Mason???  ;)

In where Laz makes me a sandwich...

I like sandwiches!

Do you like sandwiches?

Laz likes to make sandwiches....as in DIRT sandwiches.

 Let's start from the beginning...

"Hi sweet Lazaroo who I adore, care for and love and trust n such!! It's 55 degrees today, you are walking and trotting sound as I watch you play with your boys, so today, we ride.  Yes, it's been a month since our last ride, but let's do it up today son!"

mmmnnnnwhys? I getz plentee os esersise wif my boyz

u kin jus brushs me

 "Oh Laz, I'm so happy you are looking good, the weather is great, and we are going to ride, ride, ride!!"

u is gunna needz this today

I givs u subble sign by knocing dis steppie box ghetto stoolz overz in mud Mom, k?

"Hoorah! We are riding!"

 The weather was 55 but nice BIG cool winds were coming in, so I wasn't worried that Laz would sweat too much with his thick fur coat and warm weather. My intention was to work him out in the dryer pasture where it's cushy and better footing.

I love this view, it makes me think I'm riding in the English Countryside...

I see a spotz purrrrfect for strtchin mee backs and to twist n playz

We started out walking, and Laz was pretty coiled with major energy.

He kept snorting, and then would squeal and throw a head snake, shoulder pop but nothing major and nothing I haven't ridden out on him before. He usually gets excited in this field and then calms right down. Now, dumb me.  Who jumps on her OTTB, after a month off, un-lunged, bareback and decides to ask for an extended trot in an open field?! This idiot!!

Laz gave me some warning signs that he had TOO much energy to really focus, and I should have dismounted and let him run it off.  But it was funny in the beginning and fun and I thought "Whatevs..I got this!"

Then he threw a nasty, 16.3 meets 18.3 buck with the signature side leap to the right.

I felt my right calf bounce off his wither and thought "Wait..what the..." and I slammed into the soft (thanks to grass gods) ground lower back, shoulders and head bounced as I thought "This is why I wear a helmet!!!!" 

So, thanks Laz for the dirt sandwich. I wasn't hungry though

I stood right back up and there stood Laz looking at me like 

"oops. u fell??? I thught us said u hadz this??"

LOL! Good pony at least stood still and didn't try to run away 

I had to walk him back to the barn, to remount as I can NOT hurl my ass up his tall back, bareback...though I tried like I was some tween Native American girl.

 We regrouped and we rode inside his pasture.

I decided he would be more at ease there, and I certainly was NOT going to fall in this sludge, so it made me use my seat a lot better.

He was quieter, listened 95% and we were able to do some light trotting, circles, figure 8's , etc

We even played and splashed in the pasture pond

I'm sure everyone with this snow/melt weather has gotten the gift of a pasture pond or two?

 

So, a couple of thoughts.

I need to better prepare next time..I know better, I just didn't do better.

Reserve thought; is his Chia seed and bump in his grain making him a little ADD? Something to consider, but not yet...

And..I wish I had this on video!!! 

I could have ruled out if something caused it vs him just being silly.

Now...what kind of helmet should I get? Another $30 Troxel? Seems to hurt less when I have to purchase another one...