Insanity in the Middle

 To borrow a catchphrase from EN... Also what my husband regularly thinks when very little makes me as happy as my soon to be 21-year-old thoroughbred acting like a life-endangering PSYCHO!

Who, me?  YES!

Monday's have become the defacto lunging day around here.  I am usually too worn out from work to want to ride, and we also usually have Tuesday lessons.  So on Mondays, we lunge.  For Uno, this is over raised poles either in a halter or side reins.  For Dutch, this is normally just a pop around to see what his feet, stifles, and lungs have to say about life.

Dutch has terrible feet that we are currently managing with a weird combo of boots, casts, and bare for the winter. Knock on wood, he has been happy on all his current surfaces, but you never know.  He also has life long stifle injuries/ weaknesses that tend to be non-issues while he is is work but... He also has heat, allergy, and exercise-induced COPD.  This is the real reason why he was retired.  His lungs cannot handle the stress of any kind of work when one of those three stressors is setting him off.  In the summer during pollen season there are days where he needs help to be comfortable standing in front of his fan.

The older he gets the more worried I am that he will not have his magical fall perk up.  In 2018 his perk up was good enough that we hit a few schooling CTs and he stepped in for some lessons and other work from Oct - Mar.  Last year we moved in the peak of his good time year, but he was down for a full season of trail riding.  

Does no-one else's old retired guy not regularly take off into space with them?

Pencil necked buy happy and sound.

Fat and Sound

This year his summer was not as bad, but he has been way more into the slower side of life.  I have had friends trail riding him and he has even tolerated my husband trotting him around.  I had just resigned myself to his full retirement and pasture party life.  He does weekly trail rides, he works in hand to keep his brain engaged, and I lunge him once a week.  He was feeling pretty miserable with his face lump and just pretty mopey for the last few weeks.

Well, let me tell you last night this fool dragged me around like flail at the end of his lunge line as he galloped madly while bucking and farting.  The goal was for him to trot over Uno's raised poles 5 times in each direction, then go for a hand walk... Instead, he cantered for 35 minutes.

I am going to say the Sass Master is back to feeling GOOD!