We’ve fallen a bit off the blogging habit lately. It’s been one of those stretches where everything seems to be going wrong at every opportunity, and every time we have had to make a choice in response to things going wrong, we’ve chosen poorly. It’s been very stressful trying to juggle work and getting out to doctor Steen every day, and since the barn is my primary source of stress relief, turning it from a stress reliever to a stress creator does not do good things for my overall emotional state. I’ve been a bit too bummed to blog about all the gory details. We’ve had so many changes in weather and setbacks in the healing process. It feels like it’s been ages since we just had a normal trip to the barn. However, I do think Steen is on the mend again. He’s off his second round of antibiotics and happily installed in the outdoor arena with Bear and Litefoot. In spite of all the rain, he’s keeping his leg quite clean, and I’ve vowed not to change anything about how I’m caring for the injury until he’s totally healed.
All the changes have been hard on Steen too, and the fact that he got picky about his meds and had to be coaxed to eat them with sweet feed has got him rather convinced that people = treats. So we’ve definitely seen a bit of backsliding as far as manners go. But I don’t have the heart to get on him too much. I figure once he’s healed we’ll have plenty of time to sort out the bad habits.
I’m posting a series of “catch-up” blogs, detailing my work with the various horses I’ve been riding while Steen’s out of commision.