Ouch!

Well, we're back.  We left Wendover, NV at 4 a.m. Pacific Time (well, it was really 5 a.m. Mountain Time, but since you enter Pacific Time about 20 feet west of Wendover, I'm going with Pacific Time) and streaked across Nevada and California with the minimum possible pit stops to arrive back home at 2 Tuesday afternoon. Getting away is great but getting home is even better. Got unpacked and re-acquainted with the cat, who was happy to see me, and with the horse, who was not quite as enthusiastic. Vacation over for him too! I'm easing back into work--I had planned to hit the ground running but easing back seems a lot more friendly.

I got (more) saddle shims while in Colorado in my never-ending quest to get the saddle fit right. We now have not only white spots on his shoulders but actual rubbed-raw spots. NOT good! I'm at my wit's end trying to figure out how to make the horse comfortable.  I tried the suggest shimming and was met with pinned ears and bucking when I requested a canter. I finally had to drop the whole project as I was on the verge of losing it completely.

Enter our veterinarian, who visited on Wednesday to administer rabies shots. A quick eval of Cowboy pointed the problem, not at the shoulders, but at the back end of the saddle. Most saddle fit today is geared toward allowing a lot of freedom at the shoulders and is designed to allow a lot of room for wide horses all the way from the front to the back. Cowboy is not wide, in actuality is quite narrow, and the back end of the saddle tends to float when the front end is shimmed correctly. All the saddle fit suggestions are geared toward allowing enough room for movement and don't address excess movement from a saddle that is actually too wide.  So this may (or may not) be the problem. Yesterday I tackled the problem again with Tere's suggested shimming, and was again met with pinned ears and bucking. Changed the shimming. Same result. Finally, in frustration, took off the saddle completely and hopped on bareback. Same result. Hmmmm.....perhaps this is behavioral and not related to saddle fit.  After a few corrective measures, I got a happy relaxed canter, ears forward, no bucking. Sort of a good thing but doesn't solve the problem of why he is getting white spots and rubbing on the shoulders.  So I remain flummoxed about this.

But Tere did suggest laser therapy and body work for Cowboy, so today Laura and I started working on that. His head should be down for the body work, so we took him out in the pasture. Cowboy is a horse who likes to move his feet, which can drive you a bit crazy if you are trying to keep him still. I followed the suggestion to just let him move around, and we took quite a journey around the pasture. Until he finally jammed his foot in a yellow jacket nest. Talk about exciting! I was trying to apply pressure to his belly to get him to lift his back at the withers, and suddenly the horse was airborne and heading toward me. This was a bit disconcerting but while I was trying to figure out what the horse was up to, I suddenly realized that something tiny was squirming around high in my blue jeans. That was my first hint that the problem was bee-related. OUCH! So now I am trying to control a completely frantic horse, who doesn't know if he should run or roll (opted for rolling) while dealing with a fiery set of stings to my person in a very inconvenient location. We headed toward the barn at high speed and bucked our way through the barn with Laura trying to shut the barn doors on the angry swarm.  We exited on the other side and Cowboy dropped and rolled again. Meanwhile, I am still fighting the bee in my jeans. Laura grabbed Cowboy and I made my way to a nearby stall to drop my drawers and tend to my wounds. Ken conveniently showed up with more beer but he was directed away from the stall I was occupying to honor my modesty, which frankly I didn't much care about at that point. The beer was medicinal though. Cowboy and I both got topical Benadryl and we'll see how we are tomorrow. But if I am sighted wearing baggy pants with absolutely no visible panty line, there's a reason for that.

Tomorrow night I am headed for Dressage in the Wine Country to cover the event for the Horse Journal. I requested, and got, a press pass--my very first press pass! So I get to attend THE horse event of the season for free. Woo Hoo! I guess I better start figuring out which baggy pair of pants I should wear for the occasion.