Sunday Fun

Ben and I had another great day. A friend of mine who boards at the barn came up and saw Ben for the first time since he came to the barn. She was amazed at how different he looks.

Ben, of course, put on a huge show. Rolling, flipping his nose in the air, doing some bucking and playing,  pushing the jolly ball around, and even pawing the mountain block, testing its sturdiness. He mixed all that play with being a total sweetheart, stopping by our end of the arena for some cuddle time.

Shortly after my friend left, we got down to business. First thing was to put on leg protection. I was short on time, so I opted for our Woof boots and bell boots. The little white flecks you see in the picture are the brand stamps- not scar or anything. Ben stood great for his boots- even the backs.

From there, we did a short longeing session. Ben was as good in the big arena as he was in the round pen Friday night. He did great transitions, and moved nicely.

I hope to be able to climb on for a couple of rides this week, but I'm not sure that will happen. I seem to have some sort of hip injury which is really cutting into my running and riding. While I *think* I could possibly climb on the horse- i'm not sure if I can actually sit on him, or get off, LOL. Since I have to take it easy, we'll likely be focusing on ground work this week, unless some miracle cure for my hip happens.

I'm Watching You!

Sunny Saturday Pics

Didn't do much with Ben today- but I did go say Hi and snapped a few photos with my phone camera. Everyone was loving the sunshine!

Polo Friday

Ben & I had a great time today. First, I let him do his thing in the round pen- he had to roll, and roll, and roll some more. Whinny, snort, buck, spin. He was then good to concentrate on the tasks at hand.

First things first- groundwork. Move left, move right, move back, forward. Halt. Then comes grooming. What a stinky, smelly mess. I can't wait for him to shed out so he can get a bath.

Once the dust and dirt was knocked off I let him sniff his polos and on they went. He stood completely still, kind of bending his head down and around to watch- it was quite funny. When I let him walk out he did the typical spanish walk for a few steps.

From there I longed him briefly- the work we did prior to our mini-vacation must have really stuck- because he was quite responsive- walk, trot, halt, and both up and down transitions. I did just enough to practice the transitions, then changed direction and did those directions.

Observation: Ben moves much more freely to the right, and halts worse to the right- selective hearing in that direction, lol. To the left he wants to break gait from trot to walk, and is a little more stiff through his body. He also responds to the halt command better to the left.

He got really sweaty from a very small amount of "work" - poor dude- he really has to get going on shedding out that coat. Thankfully, it seemed to loosen a bit during our work and was coming off in droves with the shedding blade.  YAY!

In addition to massive amounts of body grooming, I also worked on his mane a bit- he doesn't care at all about mane thinning.

All in all, I was quite happy with what we did, and the amount of knowledge he retained and displayed. For being quite a spunk during the day, he really controlled himself during work and had great ethic. I'm proud of him!

Freeze Firing?

Thought I'd show you a picture of Ben's leg. My phone camera didn't do too bad of a job, considering I took the picture in his dark stall!

...And We're Back!

It has been over a week since I last posted about Ben. I was sick for about a week and then rolled right into a vacation.

Ben has been chillin' out for the past couple of weeks. The weather has been really poor, so I hear. I've also got reports that our Ben has been quite the spunky character when being turned out/ brought in. I suspect that is because the footing outdoors isn't all that great so he's not burning much steam off.

That is all about to change, because he's going to start lightly working as of this week. :)

Yesterday was my first day back at the barn- so I got to see my boy. He's still very hairy, but has begun to shed out- he's very behind by comparison to the other horses at the barn. I also, finally, was able to clip the lumps on his front legs. They look very much like old splints, and I suspect he got them by the way he moves. Ben will be getting his very own sport boots to prevent interference.

Anyway, clipping the spots revealed something very interesting. The lump on the left leg looked quite normal- just normal black skin over a cold, hard splint. The lump on the right leg is a different story. Once the hair was gone, revealed these white, dime-sized perfectly circular scars. The barn manager and I thought we saw some long white hairs on that particular lump when Ben first came to the barn, but honestly we couldn't be sure because of the light. We just figured it wasn't a big deal.  I've never seen anything like it- these scars. I definitely need to take a photo of these things. I wonder what they are, how he got them?! He's not lame on that leg- so whatever it is/ was hasn't bothered him- it is just the strangest set of scars I've ever seen.

It very vaguely reminds me of pinfiring marks, or something man-made. The marks are so perfectly circular, the skin looks like it is painted white in perfect little circles. However, the circles are not aligned, nor do they go down the cannon like pin firing. It seems really hard to think that he'd get an injury like that himself- it really looks man-made.

If he still has them in April, I'm going to ask the vet to look when he's up for the routine visit, just out of curiosity. I'm not very knowledgeable about treatments done at the track, let alone at the standardbred tracks- maybe he got treatment for something. It certainly looks like something  he wouldn't have done to himself.

I'll try to get a good picture and post it this week. If anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear them- I'm very curious!!!

Barely UpRight

You knew this was coming. It had to be. Icing on the stress-cake.

The Flu.

Saturday I was able to make it to the horses- it was freezing and snowing and I had to prepare their grain bags. I wasn't feeling great- but I thought it was allergies from all the saw dust flying around the house.

Turns out I was very, very wrong. About an hour at the barn, I started to feel even worse. I basically finished everything as fast as I could and got home. By then, the aches, pains, and internal chill and deep chest cough had fully set in.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday - all a haze.

Today I am somewhat upright. My 102 fever, peaking at 103 last night, has broke.

All good things from here, right?!