Aren't Days Off Supposed to be Relaxing?!

Friday was my day off from work, and the plan was to have a relaxing day at the barn with a lesson and then going up to get Zoe.  I did go and get Zoe but neither the relaxing nor the lesson happened. 

I had done a light hack with Buddy Thursday afternoon and he felt fine but when I got on to warm up on Friday, he felt stiff and just so slightly off. I double checked his feet and no rocks so we continued with our warm up.  When Jen got there I had her watch us and she confirmed what I thought; that he wasn't quite right.

 It's been hot and dry here, which is great since we can get the horses out on pasture almost 6 weeks earlier than normal.  But the downside is that the ground/arena is harder and dryer than normal and it's making Buddy foot sore.  Normally he's barefoot Oct-June, and gets front shoes in the summer.  Unfortunately he got his feet done two weeks ago and our farrier lives in central Oregon, 3 hours away.  I called as soon as I got off, hoping Steve would be in our area within a week and as luck would have it he was 10 minutes away and had time to do Bud.  Jen had me get him drilled and tapped for studs this year, since we're jumping higher and plan to do a show or two on grass this summer.  Now Bud will get a couple days rest and we'll see how the new kicks work.

I was too lazy to clean out his hoof, but you get the idea

After Bud was done getting shod, I went up to get Zoe.  She nicked at me when I went to her paddock at her owner's house and jumped right in the trailer.  I felt her moving around a bunch as we were on the way back and thought that I probably should have given her a hay bag in the trailer.  Both Phoenix and Buddy haul great, with or without food or another horse and I forget that not all ponies are so good.  When we got back to the barn, Zoe had managed to untie herself and whacked her head in the trailer. She had a half inch cut right below her eye that was pretty deep.  Connie, Jen and I debated about calling the vet, but we worried about keeping it clean, so we did.  Our regular vet was over an hour away but his associate was 5 minutes down the road.  She said the cut wasn't as bad as it looked, and with a little happy drugs and 1 stitch Zoe should be good as new. I have some antibiotic ointment to put on it and Zoe will get some bute thru the weekend. 

After all the excitement yesterday I'm hoping the rest of the weekend goes a lot smoother!