Soooo. Kandace's Big Birthday Bash was last weekend. The weather forecast was for rain and snow. Yep, snow. Bundle up! Sherrie picked Santana and I up on Friday, and we got to the cabin at about 4:30. The weekend was a blast. Such a great group of ladies, not exactly sure how I got into this circle, but I sure am happy I did. Its kind of like in high school, when you aren't one of the cool kids, and then, the cool kids invite you to eat lunch at their tsble. These ladies are the cool kids, except unlike high school, they aren't snarky. But like high school, Silly String was used.....
It rained Friday and Friday night. Saturday morning it was COLD. And windy. And snowing. I got up and dressed, and went out to saddle Santana. Then, I got some sanity, and decided, I didn't know the terrain, and I DID know Santana would be a pill. I was tired from not sleeping the night before , and I just wasnt up for the battle, nor did I want to risk injury to Santana as we had a NATRC ride the following weekend. Sherrie, Kandace and Cathy, of course, braved the weather. Their horses were full of helium for a while, they said. They weren't out toooo long. I was happy to be hanging back with a couple other gals, and, the most responsibility I had was to keep the fire burning. No problem. I learned a new game that night. "Left, Right Center." No, it has nothing to do with politics. Just a really fun game that left me on my breathing machine.....I literally worked myself into a fit... silly game....
Sunday morning. The rain had stopped! Yahoo. It was warmer at 7am than it was at 3pm the day before. A beautiful day. I was a bit concerned that I didn't have rear boots for Santana, and my desert horse had soft soles from all the rain he was standing in for 36 hours. I didn't know the terrain at all. I hoped it wouldn't be too rocky.
So, off we went. After about three miles, Santana settled down, and every other word or phrase out of my mouth was no longer, "Damit Santana, knock it off!" Santana took his usual position in the turtle position of our pack of six. I need to mention, Yankee, tho horse who by all rights should not be walking this earth, and who I have admired for a couple of years from afar, was leading the way. He looked fantastic. When he pulled up in the trailer on Friday with three of his best equine freinds with him, it actually brought a tear to my eye. What an amazing horse. And I was getting to RIDE with him! Sigh....... There were several creek crossings, and Santana did great. I think he is FINALLY over his fear of water from back a year ago when I tried to drown him....The scenery was beautiful. We were on FS roads for the most part. We had Keko, Kandace's awesome German Shepherd trail dog, and Penny's new ADORABLE dog Annie along. They were great. It was a beautiful day, with great people, and great horses. It was, The Perfect Day. We rode for about 16 miles, and got back to the trailers at about 4pm. We loaded up and headed home. About an hour after unloading Santana at home, I noticed he wouldn't put weight on his rear left leg. Crap. There was some swelling in the fetlock joint. Poop. Sure enough, he got a bulb abcess from the rocks and his soft feet from the rain. And no boots. I knew better. I could have prevented this. I should have found boots for his rear feet, but, I didn't. Me, the Queen of Preparedness. James, my hoofcare guy came out on Wednesday and confirmed the diagnosis. Santana was still Grade 4 lame. No NATRC for us. I polticed his foot, soaked it, or at least tried too (he was NOT cooperative on the soaking thing...) BySaturday, he was putting weight on his foot, and the abcess had drained. I was really disappointed that we didn't get to go to CA and try to earn some points. The good news is the ride in two weeks was rescheduled for October. Santana will not be ridden for a month while he heals. The rest of the NATRC rides for our region will all be in October and November. I wonder if I can ride him when he is wrapped in bubblewrap?
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