Back to "Normal?"

Super quick post - I am officially back to work as of yesterday, but it seems as though both horses are over their individual maladies. Universe, I am knocking on wood, so please refrain from sending me some other inconveniently irritating issue with which to contend.

When I got to the barn yesterday, Izzy had some dried tears on his face, but otherwise, his eye was clear with no swelling or obvious irritation. The cut in the corner looked much better. I didn't bother with syringing it since it looked perfectly healthy. I did cover his face with Swat though. 

Nothing new to see - photo from the day before.

Yesterday, Speedy, who has walked through about 10 miles of duct tape over the past week, looked like he was ready to be ridden. I trotted him in hand over grass and the hard packed driveway on Saturday, and he looked 98% sound. I actually considered loading him up for the drive to Paso Robles to try and make Sunday's portion of the show. Sunday is the RAAC. And then common sense reared its very adult head. 

The silver lining was that Speedy looked sound even if it was two days too late. I packed his foot with Numotizine over the weekend just in case there was a bit more of the abscess brewing. 

Sound and ready.

I saddled him up yesterday afternoon even though it was 95*. I did our usual walking warm up which now includes lots of half passing. When he felt sound, I asked him to pick up a trot. It was flat and lazy, but it was even without the hint of a hitch. My plan was to do as much as he was okay doing. Before I knew it, we did a few medium trots across the diagonal along with some shoulder in to half pass. And just to really check his soundness, I asked for a canter with some flying lead changes. 

And darn it all if he didn't nail them perfectly! While the October show at SCEC was only on my calendar as a back up plan, I am now planning on going for sure. It's a two-day USDF show, so it gives me another chance at earning a Bronze Medal score.

And then there's that show in December at El Sueno ...​