Easy June days

One thing I've learned with Laz is, time rules all.

He just needs time to recover from his fall?slip?mystery lameness

He's got it. 

Here is he just loving life with Pito, grazing in their short field

 Tinkerbelle in all her glory. She had a bit of a laminitic episode but severely limiting grazing to short field and muzzle got her right back, quickly.

The grass this Spring has been LUSH LUSH LUSH

 The Tres Amigos

This place is really quiet and peaceful. Perfect for when your pony just needs to chill and recover

 Speaking of chilling....

 Even though I haven't been riding Laz, he's been getting just as many kisses and snuggle times

 My Mom visiting kissing her grandhorse...and feeding him organic dandelion greens like any good Greek Yiayia would. He LOVES them

 He also loved her diamond ring and kept nibbling it!

***
Vet visit #4?? Just maintenance to check on Laz and adjust plan/meds etc

This time I had my trimmer out and the plan was to sedate Laz so he could apply two casts to his hoof for support to see if it helped his lameness

I'm so lucky to have not only a supportive team but one that gets along.

It's not often a Vet supports the Holistic side but she is game if it helps her Western side.

Chiro work along with Equioox-check

Barefoot work along with turnout/rest-check

She even stayed an extra hour plus to make sure he walked off OK, which is awesome. They were both there well over two hours.

I don't know why but I hate sedating Laz..it's just sad to me. 

However it helped him relax comfortably so we could get a good strong casting on him.

His RH Hoof prior to cast/trim

 After cast...sedated potato on legs

It's been almost week in his cast and he's looking great.

We've been cleared to start riding at the walk or doing light walk/ground work

We'll take it.

Spring chill mode

I'm happy to report that Friday evening was the day Laz joined back in with the herd.

Pito joined Tinkerbelle on Thursday with no issues and here is how Laz reacted to joining in

(video below)

Whew! What good ponies!

***

Saturday, the weather was heaven. 50 degrees, sunny, low wind.

I grabbed my pony, cleaned him up and decided to ride.

He was game from the get go

So...we ambled down the road and tried for our 2nd attempt for the trails

Heading down the mowed path on the private property to get to the trail system

It was a lot drier but we hit some soggy spots

 This is when I know I have a good pony between me; when he wants to stop and sniff things

 He would spot a few times to smell and I just would refocus in the distance and urge him on.

He obliged 

 Officially in the trail!!!

 Such happiness! I love our quiet alone rides when I can push my nerves aside

We rode for about 15 minutes when we saw two more riders in the distance...

Laz FROZE. It took a few asks and I got him to circle (breath buddy!) and we just waited to let them approach us. They were two ladies out enjoying the trails on their Canadian Warmblood and a Perch/TB X. We chatted for about 10 minutes, they complimented an OTTB in a halter (nope, it was my bitless bridle) and said he was the roundest TB they've seen. I literally laughed out loud. I take that as a compliment.  They seemed very nice and hopefully we run into them again. 

We carried on our own though today, as that was our mission.

After that Laz was definitely a bit more up, but I put in some trot work and he came back down

Here he is back to normal chill mode

Coming home...

 The two grays in the distance...far distance

This little friend joined us for a ride...

Laz, feeling a bit tired and content I hope, as I untacked/brushed him gazing over to his new herd of three.

What is nice is that Pito doesn't scream after us when we ride away because he feels safe with Tink

After my fantastic soul fullfilling ride, I made this for tomorrow's Greek Easter

A fruit trifle made wtih ladyfingers soaked in strawberries, lemon and condensed milk, layered with freshly whipped vanilla creme and topped with blackberries, strawberries and passionfruit

Pretty much a great day!

TinyTown

We escaped for a couple of nights to my old town, Chicago (I was born/raised in Evanston, IL)

We had a blast; weather was sunny and high 60's, food was fantastic, hotel was in a great spot and we walked the lake front to our hearts content.
We love nothing more than waking up, grabbing coffee and walking 5-10 miles while chatting, taking in the scenery lake side, and curling back into the City for shopping, people watching and scenery viewing. A great City vacation is so good for the soul.

Chicago is a fantastic place to visit if you never have

While we were away, my BO texted me this...

"Meet Tinkerbelle"

Tinkerbelle is a 20 yr old pony ex lesson mare and cute as cute could be!

She looks like a mini unicorn.

She may fart glitter!

I was anxious to meet her and I did on Sunday morning.

The boys (Pito and Laz) are separated for her so she can get acclimated

She is very leery of 'big' people but has already given several great kid rides I've heard to the BO's little ones and friends little ones

Dispite me wanting to SQUEEEZE her, I gave her time/space ...oh and cookies

She is DARLING. 

Is this not the face you envisioned when you were 5 asking for a pony?

 She and Laz squeal at each other over the fence...and when I was with Laz on his side, he actually charged at her with pinned ears. I'm hoping when they go together as a herd, that he will be sweet to her. For now, they are separated for a bit until the excitement settles down

 Cutie girl!

Her hooves are SO long, it looks like her last trim was prior to winter

I'm aching to get to those hooves.... but she's not mine

Any advice when introducing a new horse to a herd?

We plan to put Pito in with her first being he is the calmer of the two boys and Laz in last.

Is it best to let them go free as horses and let it play out?
Do you introduce slowly, all on lines? Then release?

We plan to let them sniff at each other over the fence for a few days, then
let Pito in and give him and Tink a day to bond, then introduce Laz and let them sort it out as horses while praying no one gets hurt.

Any secrets to success?

Happy Birthday Lazarus!

Sweet boy turned 10 years old today!!!!

(In lucky years, I'm so lucky to still have him...2 yrs old)

 His foal registration....awwww

 We picked up his bday gift, a BIG bag of Omega Fields Flax to add to his diet...he loved it!

Here was why, along with a lot of read research that flax can help those predetermined to laminitis:

 •RESTORE cracked brittle hooves and develops strong solid hoof growth

•PROMOTE shiny, healthy coat, and smoother skin texture

•ALLEVIATE stiff, immobile joints

•SOOTHE aching muscles and shortens recovery time

•STRENGTHEN immune system

•ELIMINATE sweet itch and bug bite sores

•ALL NATURAL without artificial preservatives

•ALTERNATIVE for pysllium which prevents sand colic

•RECOMMENDED for Insulin Resistance and Cushings

Birthday boy running after a good birthday roll!

 It was spotty and rainy on his bday, but as luck would have it, it stopped for about 30 minutes so I quickly stopped his bday grooming and took him out for a RUN!!!

 Terrible picture but the bday boy slopping up his slurpee with now added flax

***

Moving backwards, to review this past Saturday

 It was W-I-N-D-Y so I wasn't sure what could be accomplished but I went out with high hopes

 It was B-U-S-Y at the barn, lots of building, dogs, people, etc so great tests for Laz and I 

Laz did amazing...we worked on just keeping him comfortable but listening

There were some big spooks, to be expected but when I patted him and talked to him he came back to earth quickly. He did a lot of tongue rolling and lolling which I've actually not seen him do, but then would blink and lick, so I assuming it was just anxiety and then himself working it out and calming back down.

I was happy with him and we w/t for 45 minutes despite the world going on around us, quite well

The BO had a riding lesson going on in the round pen, and there was building going on in Laz's pasture so mini had to come roam around the arena with us.

Laz and I channeled our Western side and did some cow penning....er mini penning, it was hilarious

Laz got so into it that he gently bit mini's rump and the little Wicked took off running, bucking and squealing, lol!

After our ride, we took a hand walk with another boarder and her Arab (you can't see them because they are on Laz's other shoulder side)
It was way too windy for us to feel safe riding, but we still wanted to go 'trail walking' so we went about 1-1/2 miles

Hooray, I also tried on Laz's easy boots and they fit him again...his hoof is regaining a normal shape and made me feel better for our road walk

 

We are just walking by this PARKED semi truck...it was NOT moving, no worries.  Laz walked by while shoulder bumping me the whole time like "Ummm...Mom, shouldn't YOU be closer to this giant, than me??"
I had to remind him of my space about 10 times

We stopped at this baby bubbling brook to see what the horses thought of it.  Being a water boy, I thought Laz would enjoy to step in it.

What I don't have a picture of is Laz choosing to not walk in the water, but perform a DEER LEAP over this brook about 7 feet wide and then almost trampling me (really he tried not too) but behind me in the picture is a wall of shrubbery so there was limited space for him to go. He caught me so off guard that he opted to jump instead of walking, so I quickly scrambled to the other side to coax him to walk over and he again LEAPT over, stopped by me, sighed and looked at me like "whaaaa...that...oh that's nothin."

Jeez...and ooops, he was totally fine, even though I freaked that he hurt himself (jumped!!?) but now I know to maybe not ask too much for this little frog horse likes to jump??!

When we got back, I let him graze the sides with his tiniest bff and enjoy the sunshine

A horse in the hand

Sun, sun, sun!
LOVE it.

The sunshine makes the cooler than normal temps seem warmer and you can FEEL the sun's warmth.

Someone is shedding like a hot whore in a steambath

It's never ending...but I can't wait until his sleek summer coat

We worked on lunging over two ground poles, trotting in both directions for 10 minutes

Ground tied angel.

He did great, much MUCH better about picking his feet.

After the 10 minutes, he was steamy, nostrils flared red, and we stopped before he got too tired from picking up his feet to stumble. 

He did great

Instead of our road trail walk, I walked him around the property area.

We haven't done this alone yet.

He leaped forward when he heard the dogs rustling in the woods. 

I know, he knew it was the dogs but I think his anxiety just got the best of him.  He quickly started licking and lowered his head like "oops, sorry...just kidding."

Looking back at the other horses for reassurance

It's hard to tell in this picture, but it's like a major cliff. The other side of the dirt, is a drop off.

Eeeks.
I'm not a fan of walking by...I HATE heights.

Little white rimmed eye peeking through, not entirely sure

The dogs race down this hill..it's a steep hill regardless of how tiny and inviting it looks in the photo.

If you were to sled down it, you would FLY

Laz got a little amped up when walking..WALKING..down it.

I had to remind him "WAAAALK" otherwise I had visions of me getting yanked down, right into the hot fencing.  But..we didn't

My goal is to have Laz comfortable with our trail walks in hand, and splash in rides in between to gain confidence for us both.

Visiting Stormy, his Polish Arab buddy.  Stormy nickered to Laz the sweetest girliest nicker

Fatty gets his beet pulp and Carly likes to eat the slob's leftovers

And after Laz, it was Wicked's turn.

We did lunging over the poles and major grooming.

This boy sheds

He finally allowed me to pick all four hooves without yanking his little goat legs away. It's amazing what a carrot nibs will teach a pony.

"I nots a hunder jumpers poneee, I dontz wannaz workz in there...NO more!!!"