How to Not Have a Lesson on Your Greenie

I'm supposed to be getting ready for my first lesson since June right now. Literally. I should be just finishing tacking up and then climbing on to warm up.

But I'm not.

Why?

It stated with this:

Or maybe he wants a long nose fly mask to match Prisoner

I'm not really sure what he's got going on here.It looks a bit like sunburn, but that's a really random place to sunburn after going two full summers at the same facility on the same feed and never sunburning at all before.

Also he has created a fun new game that my BO just LOOOOOOOVES in which he tries to take all the T post caps off in his field.

Really. It's her favorite thing ever.

Anyways. Perhaps he just scraped himself playing the T post game.

At least it's not painful?

So I can sort of explain that, but then there was this:

What is that? I have no idea. It looks like a peeling sunburn, but again, it's on a horse that has never sunburned and who peels the black skin on the side of their face? It made no sense.

Annnnnd then a friend asked if I'd used any new products on him....

Guess who is somewhat reactive to his new fly spray?

Dammit.

ouch

Still. Neither of those conditions seemed to cause undue pain or distress and I really, really want a lesson. I lead Courage out of his stall for turnout...

And he can hardly put weight on his right front foot.

I immediately grab a hoof pick and find this:

Yes, he got new shoes on Monday. No, it wasn't loose enough to come off. And yes, his shoe is just sitting on his sole. I'm touchy about sole pressure.

In a crazy stoke of luck, two journeymen farriers and their intern showed up like ten minutes later and got the shoe reset correctly, but a certain little bay horse must have done a very impressive spin move in his stall over night and he was pretty sore from standing on his sole since then.

And that's the story of why I'm not having a lesson today. Cross your fingers for Saturday. I have bell-booted, hoof-painted, and un-fly-sprayed the little man.

What will he come up with next?

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Princess Hats

Izzy was wonderful today. For the first time ever, we walked, trotted, and cantered both ways on the correct leads. There was no rearing on the lunge line and no fighting with the bit. It was lovely.

Then, Michelle and I went to the tack store and I got my girls crusader fly masks with ears. So fancy. They both thought they were princesses, though Cassie's joy was a bit short lived. I switched her into a pen and put Ellie, a sweet Hanoverian mare, out with Izzy. I feel bad for Cassie, but it's for the best. Izzy gets picked on too much, and Ellie never pins her ears at anyone. Hopefully, they can be buddies.