Current

OK, I promised you fun with horses in my previous entry. Whatever was I thinking of?

I took Lakota out Saturday. We went up a mountain trail I used to ride all the time. I haven't been up it in about 4 years, and somehow it's gotten steeper! Well, maybe not. Anyhow, we were going along at a pretty reasonable pace, when I heard voices behind us. I pulled over, off the trail, and hollered "Hello!" I was so happy to see my buddies M & F on their endurance horses! We chatted a minute, and then I let them go ahead. Lakota thought he might be able to keep up! Those other guys do a 50 mile ride every 3-4 weeks and poor Lakota was eating dust. After it became obvious to him we couldn't keep up, I made him stop in the shade and catch his breath. Afterwards, he wasn't so gung ho to catch up. We eventually did meet up with M & F at the tub, so we got to chat a little more before they took off again.

Something funny about Lakota. He's a short-backed round little arab. He wasn't gelded til around 8-9 years old, so he carries himself more as a stallion and you don't feel like you're on a pony. He gets terrible girth sores; his owner has been through lots of equipment trying to find girths and saddles that won't irritate him, but still he gets bloody behind his elbows. Saturday, I put some "Bag Balm" on the tender spots. Basically, it's just lanolin with some carbolic acid as an antibiotic. I forgot his breast collar, though. When we came back from two and a half hours of walk, canter, and mostly trotting up and down steep hills, I was surprised to see that his tender spots were not bleeding or even irritated.

His owner took him on an easy one and a half hour flat ride the next day, only walking. She also put the bag balm on, like I did. He got all bloody! The difference is that she put on the breast collar. So I'm wondering if that makes the girth come too far forward and irritate that tender skin.

Horses - always something to figure out!