Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Quarantine

Got one of those fun barn texts today.  Apparently, we've had an outbreak of contagious conjunctivitis in the barn, specifically in the school horse field but it's jumped to at least one horse that's not in that field.  Joy.

At least my roses look good this year

Theo's field is on the other side of the property and because he's a serious jerk, he has no physical contact with any school horses.  He plays halter tag with another boarder horse that is not affected or allowed near the nicely behaved ponies that kids get to handle.  He also has his tack on a different level of the barn and doesn't go in the lower level where the school horse stuff is.  He's not affected and not considered to be at risk.  Having a jackass for a horse has it's benefits.

To keep things from spreading further, prevent it from hopping species, and make the process of bleaching everything in the barn more possible, all lessons have been cancelled until Saturday.  No horses can go off property and no horses can visit.  I've been asked point blank to take a couple days off to help keep the foot traffic down at the barn.

UGH.

So that means I don't have a schooling show this weekend since our vet told us to not go to any weekend shows.  Minor problem for me, big problem for one of the eventers that had a show in Vermont this weekend.  It also means Theo is getting an unscheduled three day break and that his lameness exam part two is being rescheduled.

His lyme counts have not changed, so we're moving on to x-rays and injections/blocking.  My checkbook is not at all happy.

He's lucky he's cute

So I guess I'll be taking this extra time off to focus on my half marathon training.  I've been slacking on that due to ridiculous humid, hot weather.  I'm supposed to do a 9 mile run this weekend.  I can't say I'm really looking forward to it.



Running does make me much more sympathetic to my athletic partner.  I now know just how tough it can be to get moving in the warm up, what it feels like to have a joint not want to play one day, or how much it sucks when you can't get enough oxygen into your body.  I took a goofy step and had a knee twinge on a recent run and while limping and cussing, really made myself think about how that would feel for my pony.  Yeah, I'm really looking forward to getting the xrays and injections done for him.  I want him to feel amazing because running with any kind of pain SUCKS.

Soon enough we'll get to work on that project.  First we take a little unscheduled break.

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