Archie had his six-month recheck with vaccines on Friday.  While the vet was there, I told him about Archie feeling like shit under saddle (but doesn't he look good?  TELL ME HE LOOKS GOOD!) and throwing temper tantrums miles into trail rides.  Vet counted the months that it'd been since he had his pastern injected and agreed that it was time.  Unfortunately, he didn't have time to do the injection on Friday, as he had to go castrate a mammoth jack.  I wish I could have watched!

So I gave Archie the weekend off in preparation for his appointment Monday and worked poor Ox.  I can't help it.  I freaking love this horse.  He's enabled me to be better than the jumper I once was.  Also, it's just so refreshing to go on trail on a solid fox hunter who spooks at nothing, jumps everything, and takes most of his cues from the horse in front of him.

A post shared by bekaburke (@bekaburke) on Feb 19, 2017 at 2:47pm PST

Anyways, I had Monday off so I headed up to the barn early and just loved on the two boys.  I spent lengthy time with my SleekEz, my grooming gloves, and detangler.  If you haven't smelled Hillary's Coat Refresher, you need to.  The guys were downright edible and it was definitely what they needed after a winter of blankets.

When the vet got there, we put Archie on the lunge in the sand.  The changes in his stride were downright alarming and my horse is a fucking saint.  This isn't to say that he was three-legged lame or anything, but when you've been riding a horse for ten years, you notice when he's short-strided where otherwise he's normally almost an over-tracker.  Also, lunge line.  Grandpa doesn't do circles for a reason.

So we brought him back into the barn, gave him cuddles and happy juice, and then we (like I had anything to do with it) injected his right front pastern.  Grandpa went into a stall to sober up and was his normal self within the hour.  I'm excited to see how he feels, but I won't ride him until Friday or Saturday.

Me after a couple.

Wundersaft.

HEY HEY HEYYYYYY

so fucking handsome.