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I'll have to talk with mom and see. I think we're supposed to be up to 30 minutes of work by now but every time we get close to 20 I get suspicious of her soundness and drop to a light week and then 5 minutes. And I don't know what I'm going to do now. Arena won't be usable for a while. Last snow storm was only 6 inches and it took a month for arena to be rideable. We're now projected to get 12-18. (even if she had snow shoes on she's not supposed to be on a deep surface like that). I'm surprised the barn manager didn't scoop up snow sooner. But oh well.

Yeah I definitely don't feel comfortable on ice. I did have some snow growing up but not much considering it's Arizona and my parents always drove. And then here with college students also mostly from Phoenix it's just a dangerous mix.

Oh wow! That sounds pretty crazy!

It's like that a lot of the time in the winter with rehabbing an injury. Even while she's getting better, the change in weather can affect how she's feeling enough to make her seem like she's backsliding. With the snow, I would just take it easy a week or so and then start with a few easy trail rides or rides around a pasture or something. And I bet she doesn't mind you not making it out so often as long as you still visit her when you can and take her on walks like you're doing. Hiking in the snow is good for you both, and on really bad days you're both safer staying home in your 'room'. ;)

Most of mine liked to roll in the snow when we got any too, but I think your girl with her dramatic groans is particularly adorable. ;;)

Aww man arena has been rideable for ONE day and 50% chance of 3-6 inches. 34% chance of 6-10

Lexi wasn't the worst she's ever been but certainly not good (soundness wise although she was frustrating on warm up walk ride)

Sorry I missed the posts here! Sounds like the weather is really playing havoc with your schedule and Lexi's, but at least it's March. Spring will happen eventually!

With Lexi not supposed to be in deep footing, I would ride anywhere but that arena. :/ When she tries rushing, make her stop (maybe even practice the one-rein stop) and stand still. Voice commands for the gaits are helpful to stop that sometimes, too. When you tell her 'walk' and she tries to trot, make her stop and try it again. It will be frustrating for you and for her at first, but eventually she'll realize that if she walks out calmly then she gets to go see and do something instead of standing around again because she tried to trot/canter when cued for a walk.

For the boots, I would look for winter hunting boots. There are lots of waterproof options and they are made tough with liners for the cold. They aren't pretty, but they're just going to get covered in mud anyway. ;)

For some reason it didn't click for me that its not spring break until a few minutes ago! Now I'm getting excited!

I was hoping we "camp" the entire time, but we're gonna spend half the week at home. We just can't decide if we're taking Lexi to Carla's or Lanes. There's a decent list of pros and cons for both.

Cons Carla's
-Carla might be grumpy and I'd rather not be there if that's the case
-Would probably have to pay some money on top of board at school
-Have to drive to see Lexi
-Road Ride Options are fairly dangerous

Pros Carlas
-Might be other people to ride with
-Mom's horse is there
-I don't have to feed and clean
-Nice arena to ride in
-Has a nice stall open (surprisingly)

Cons Lanes
-Have to feed and clean (last time they weren't satisfied with how I cleaned the stall which is stressful, but Mom takes out way too much and leaves nothing for Lexi to lay on, and it was super muddy and snowy the entire time last time)
-No arena, but the field his other are turned in is almost more close to suitable footing for Lexi anyways.
-Ride alone
-No escape from Mom if I need to. (leaving my truck at school)

Pros Lanes
-can go outside and visit Lexi anytime I want
-A tiny bit more safe options for road riding, but we pretty much exhausted most of them last time
-be able to feed Lexi as much as we want.
-Mom and Lane are both right there if there's issues

I know 4 days or whatever isn't that important, but I think it will set the precedent for what we do during summer break. Now its nice that Lane is assuming we're coming because it used to be drama to let Lexi come over.

Mom was being a bit dramatic about this being "her" week and I was going to spend the whole time with her(IE not my Dad or my sister). Which is fine cool we can ride everyday, but then she's like well I don't want to go over and ride everyday, which makes me suspicious she's going to be working or something and I'd like to be able to go to my Dad's (well not really there's drama there, but I feel obligated to).

Well I was excited now I'm back to being stressed. Haha.

Vet check was not encouraging.

Vet thinks she looks worse and the fact that the more were doing the worse she looks is not a good sign. Our last ditch effort is some injections but obviously that's fixing a symptom not the cause

It sounds like you are in a situation where you should try to pick the least stressful option.

At least you know and aren’t just guessing on what to do. It’s still rough with the bad news.

As for boots... Everyone is probably going to screech at me. But muck boots are amazing to ride in. Granted you need ranch style western stirrups. So a wide platform for your feet and a leather tread, and small enough you can’t shove your whole foot in the stirrup. Or safety stirrups. But it works real well. If I’m riding English I will wear my muck boots out to the arena carrying my regular boots then put those on right before I get on. But when it’s super cold, I ride western or bareback and use my muck boots.

I told my Dad about Lexi, and he was NOT comforting whatsoever. He just retold me for probably the thousandth time how "he" paid 30k (today money equivalent) for a horse and its training for Mom just for the thing to have a heart attack and die on her at their first competition. I'm like wow. I'm soo comforted thank you.

Horses are just so hard. I feel so jinxed. I mean I seem to be OK until I try to jump. But then life punishes me for trying to jump. Cherrie HATED jumping. Callie didn't stay sound enough for jumping. Chevy was insane. And Lexi is now unsound. Those are all of my personal horses for the last 12+ years. And my poor Mom tried so hard for me. I can just tell. And then my Dad is all pissed because he doesn't think my Mom supports me enough. But yet if you ask him then he's like oh I think you should have the horse, but Mom's contribution to me doesn't count because I spend her contribution on my horse.... But Mom never promised me anything. Dad always told me he'd support me through the highest degree I want to get, but now he's being all dramatic about it because he believes my Mom should support me more. And if she hadn't opened up her mouth after she was acting as mediatator when Dad and I had our drama last year and it was resolved and then she told Dad that she thinks he owes her money and he's been punishing me for it ever since. (Which on most of this I side with Mom, but they have both points but that's just a whole different story)

Lexi's resting heart rate was 60 this morning. So that's concerning... And it never went back down. Mom and Lane are like we'll go check her in a couple days, but isn't that a check on her later today thing?

I was expecting Lexi to get better on this camping trip. She normally does better on trail rides. Some of it is a bit hilly but not as bad as that one day I took her out riding a few weeks ago. And she was better that day. Instead she's falling apart in front of my eyes. And the injections were supposed to help too. But they don't appear to be. One hour trail ride and the next day she can hardly walk.

I had decided to keep her even if she was only trail sound. A couple more years and hopefully I could afford her on my own and start thinking of another horse. But if she's falling apart that fast.... I still hope she can retire in Lanes pasture as a broodmare but I doubt it. (not really a pasture but there's two old retirees there and I don't think she'd get along with other horses anyways)

More Walk Trot Lesson, Random Stuff from Chrismas Break, and camping trip

Praying for her heart to feel the milder weather coming and her legs to get stronger with it! She's so beautiful! :)

I wish I could afford an animal communicator. Lexi had a chiropractor appointment earlier this week and the next day she seemed really good but then the day after that bad again. I'm supposed to start her on equioxx but somehow the transition from mom to me it got lost and of course Mom is blaming me.... But Lexi just seems to want to sit and watch scenery with me and not doing anything and I wonder if an animal communicator would be able to ask her if she wants to be retired or keep going. Which if I push her past that initial reluctance to go she just gets more and more and more energy and begs to do more. But the first 5-20 minutes of the ride are just miserable.

Got to love when they decided they need to do their job right now, no matter that you wanted a nice easy relaxing ride. Lol. My mare is almost always looking for cows, and if she happens to see one she acts the same as Lexi did with the jump. I’m glad she’s doing better for you.