Well that failed

Sunday I got out earlier than the day before but that apparently wasn’t enough. I was melting before I even got on. I did manage to ride for about 30 minutes but that was about all I could handle. I think I got a little burnt because all my sunblock slid right off my face.

After the ride, I had everything setup to clean Scarlet and he wouldn’t drop. At all. I spend probably 45 minutes alternating between having my hand shoved up his sheath to try and pull him down and resting my back. It hurts to stand stooped with your hand up your horse’s tender places.

90% of the time, he will drop after a ride while I’m grooming him. And I’ve messed with him while he was hanging before. But when I’m ready to clean him? Nope not gonna happen.

Monday, I totally skipped the ride. It was going to be almost 100 at the barn and neither Scarlet nor I deserved riding in that heat.

Tuesday, it was still mid-80s but that was significantly cooler. Scarlet was happy to go riding. I’ve been working very hard on keeping up riding off the rail. Since I’ve been doing it so much, I’ve really felt how Scarlet hangs on the right aids. This is why he feels like a motorcycle going to the right. The left has always been better but now that I’m asking him to “GET OFF!!!” he is having issues going to the left as well. Not because it’s hard for him but because he really doesn’t want to have to do all the work himself. I’ve kept after it and we are getting much better feeling at the trot. I do sometimes have to give him a pony kick with my right leg to get him off of that and onto both reins. We finished off popping over tiny cross rails since we did have a good ride.

Wednesday was much cooler and I decided to work Scarlet in a different arena, just to test how his focus was with different places. It wasn’t as good but we still got work done. I did some canter figure eights with him where we counter cantered. I’ve been trying to push him in that area and he is doing remarkably well. I do need to try to make it as easy for him as possible. By that I mean, I probably shouldn’t do his bad lead second, when he is tired from the rest of the work we are doing. Bad mom.

These last few days, I’ve been trying to get him to drop and look. I did get him to do it once on Tuesday but he didn’t drop far. I was able to see a bean and tried to get it out but it was either too big or Scarlet wasn’t relaxed enough. I debated with myself for a bit and decided I need to get a vet out here. It feels stupid to ask a vet out more or less just for a sheath cleaning. But I’m the one responsible for Scarlet’s health and whether it makes me feel like I failed or not, I need to get the appropriate things done. I haven’t cleaned his sheath since I got him. I should have. I should have done it more regularly. But I didn’t. And I’m embarrassed about it. But being embarrassed is a piss poor excuse for not getting the vet out. So I’m going to call a vet the barn uses a lot and see when I can get a visit. And in the future, I’ll work on conditioning Scarlet to drop easier and cleaning his sheath more frequently.