Well, today turned out surprisingly good! I got up early for the farrier and had the ponies ready for him. His daughter came because school is out and she had fun snuggling and petting the girls. She even did Funny's hair. :) I can't decide if Funny was horrified or pleased. But she was really good with her. So was Lyric. Even Dan was a good boy.
Then I went to the chiropractor and got my neck adjusted. Also sat on the roller table. Yay! Then I rode Dan at Ashland with Sharon and we went for splashy swim. Then when I got home, Mike went to get chain cleaner, so I decided to hop on Funny. She wasn't finishing her grain a few days ago for two meals and then the third meal she walked away entirely after only eating a few bites. I can't decide if she's in raging heat (AGAIN!) and just wanted to go hang out with Jean's horses.. or if she's ulcery. She's definitely in heat, but... she's been in heat many times before and has never walked away from her grain. So I started giving her sucralfate before meals and she went back to eating. So, when I caught her today for her ride, I gave her sucralfate and then we tacked up. I put the pretty gold pad on her and I really kind of like it!
We headed up to the arena and she was a little fussy because Dan and Lyric were in the barn. But they eventually came up and she got over it once we were most of the way to the arena. We spent a little bit of time at the walk and we actually had a decent walk most of the time. Then we did some trotting and in the very beginning she was lovely! She got quick fairly quickly, but it wasn't too bad. We had some really nice work. She was more bendy today and not as against my left leg. And she was softer in the contact and didn't invert as much. We played with some leg yields and some lengthens and sitting trot. And then we did some canter. It was a decent canter today. We went back to trot and got some nice work again, although as usual she was still a bit quick after. We played with transitions so she is learning to come back to "neutral" quicker each time. I even touched on the walk again and she wasn't too bad at all.
I also did a tiny bit of cantering over the ground poles and sliced them, after our lesson the other day was so tough. But they weren't really conducive to it how they were placed in the arena. And I was too lazy to get off and move them and in the dressage saddle, so I just figured we'd do that another day.
She was really quite nice and we finished with some decent trot work and a halt. Then I made her walk aound again and we practiced free walk to working walk to free walk and on and she was still better than I expected. Then we did the WE gate once and she did pretty darn good! Then we walked to the actual gate.. and I made her stand there and she took a breath and didn't try to move off immediately so I opened the gate and she stood until I asked. Ahhhh. Good girl! So we meandered back down and then she got a nice long rinse. And then I prepped feed and she ate. Even though I didn't immediately redose the sucralfate. So.. now I have to decide... was it coincidental or does she really have ulcers and the sucralfate is making her feel better? I guess my only way to decide for sure is to pull her off the sucralfate and see if she goes back to not eating. Well, I guess I should technically scope her to really know. But I'm wondering if I should just pull her off it fairly soon and see what happens (because it's not like the ulcers will be healed by 3 days of meds). If she keeps eating... it probably isn't ulcers. If she stops again immediately, it's likely ulcers and then I need to decide if I want to scope or just treat. And then decide what to treat with... oof. We'll see if I decide to check tomorrow morning or if I wait til tomorrow evening...
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