Reunited

 Last Thursday and Friday were dental days at Cinder's barn. One of Trainer A's good friend from college went on to become an equine dentist and does amazing work. She's moved to Colorado, but comes back to Oregon twice a year to do clients. Both of my ponies were due, so on Friday I hauled Peebs up for his dental. Cinder had gotten done on Thursday.

Uh, mom I don't go anywhere anymore

I was so very excited to have both of my ponies together, even for an afternoon. Peebs hauled like a champ, but was little nervous upon unloading. He called out as we walked towards the barn, and I immediately heard Cinder call back. Her stall is now the first one when you walk into the barn, and she had her head craned around the corner to see us. They sniffed noses, nickered at each other, then Cinder tried to bite the hell out of Peebs' neck. Sibling love at it's finest!

Cinder's turnout buddy Ani was in the crossties behind me when I took this pic, and she was very very mad that Cinder was excited to see Peebs. Cinder is her girlfriend and no one else is allowed to like her and Cinder isn't allowed to like anyone back. We joke that Ani is the butch lesbian of the barn, to Cinder's femme bisexual. 

I chucked Peebs in a stall, letting him chill and eat a little bit of leftover hay before he got his sleepy juice. A couple of the other boarders came up and asked about him, one asking if he and Cinder were really related (I had yelled at Cinder to not bite her brother, and hahahaha no they are not related) and one picked apart his flabby retirement bod. I was ready to smack her; I know he's not a big fancy warmblood and this is a barn full of big fancy warmbloods and he's been in rehab/retirement for almost two years now but I was still pissed. We do not body shame in this household.

Peebs dental went well, and as he was waking up I had a great flat lesson on Cinder. We introduced counter canter and while she was a little confused, she did it. We had ridden outside since it was gorgeous and warm, and she actually worked up a little bit of a sweat. I gave her a quick rinse afterwards, and as she was drying off gave Peebs a good tail and butt wash. His leaky gut syndrome tends to get worse in winter, especially with big temperature swings, and his barn only has cold water. I wanted to take full advantage of having him at SF for the day and use their hot water. I took the two of them out to graze for a little bit before tucking Cinder away for the night and loading Peebs up to go home. They kept calling for each other, and Peebs was uncharacteristically bad about loading up. It broke my heart separating them again.  I wish I could have them together all the time, but I know they're both at the right barns for them. 

Whole New Pony

About a month ago McKenna had her teeth done, the first time she's had them done while I've had her.  I had gotten her vet records from when she came off the track and J bought her, and they had nothing previous since she came from a feed lot.  She had gotten her teeth done in spring 2013, so at a year and half I figured she was due and luckily another boarder wanted her mares done so we set up an appointment with our dentist.

Dentist said that she had a bunch of small, sharp points but didn't look too bad for 1.5yrs. She did complain (kiddingly) that McKenna has a very narrow jaw (I know, I had to go buy smaller bits) and that most horses have some excess skin around their jaw and McKenna didn't. Her teeth were right against the skin. The only major thing was one of her teeth on the bottom right side of her face was crooked.  Dentist couldn't tell if it was moving (please no, she's too young for dental problem!) or if it came in crooked.  She's leaning towards it coming in crooked, as it didn't seem to move around when she was working on it.  But its something to watch and she'll have to be done at least yearly to check on it.


I like that its hard to tell she's clipped.

Last Monday I gave McKenna her first clip of the season.  It's earlier than I normally clip, like to wait till mid November, but she's been so sweaty and I had time.  She was very good for it, standing still and not caring about the clippers except for around her head.  I still haven't managed to clip her ears but have gotten her bridle path done.  Last year I just did a trace clip along her neck and barrel, but since I hopefully plan to show the winter I gave her a full clip.  There's a few touch up spots I have to go back and get, but it took me just over an hour to do. 

Next week our chiropractor is coming out and McKenna's on her list.  During her trainer ride last week, trainer said she was much stiffer going left than right, but I hadn't felt anything. But during our ride Wednesday I couldn't get her to pick up her left lead without some major head tossing, running forward and general bad ponyness.  I had to dig my heel into her side while growling at her before I got a nice, clean transition.  That's pretty unsuall for her so I agreed with trainer and called for the chiro.

PNW bred ponies don't care bout no puddles

She's also getting her feet done next week, which is good since she's overgrown.  Our farrier was hunting last week when they were due, and had to push them back.  By the end of next week I'll have a whole new, (hopefully) balanced pony!