Royal Gets A Quiet Week... And I Don't

After the excitement at Steepleview and with Birchbury being postponed, I decided to give Royal a relaxing week. He's really earned it, and I think letting him have ample time off is good for him mentally and physically. I try to keep our sessions fun and engaging, but it can still be hard stuff. We had a relaxed session on Wednesday, just playing at Liberty in the arena, and with yielding to pressure from Zone 4. He was a champ, as always. Friday was hot and buggy, but we still had fun on the 45 foot line. Today was Freestyle Dressage Test day. I put the bareback pad on and used the hackamore and we did the Intro A & B tests. Lots of fun was had, and the tests aren't too challenging. Turn, stop, go, circle, change direction, circle, change gait, stop. Pretty simple stuff.

I had a mostly exciting week. On Monday, I was at the clinic and one of the appointments was some dog vaccines and blood tests. One of the dogs (a big hound) didn't want his blood drawn and fought like mad. Eventually, it got to the point where the owner was kneeling on the dog, I was holding off the vein, and the vet was drawing the blood. At the last moment, the dog kicked and the needle went through his skin and into my thumb, stopping just below the back of the nail. Do I need to say OW!! I had to keep it wrapped and iced for a while, but other than a puncture wound and a bruise, no damage.

Thursday was another interesting day. The vet and I were called out for the works (check teeth, clean sheath, Coggins test, vaccines) for a Percheron-cross and his new owner. Who's never owned a horse before, and this is a 1400lb. behemoth. He decided he didn't want anything to do with us and he didn't have to. There was no fear in it, only dominance. We ended up having to give enough IM sedation for SIX horses. Oh yeah, this was a tough one. And the worst part is that we were confirming his suspicions about this being a fight, and it's probable that the next time will be worse. The owner said that a trainer was going to work with the horse, but this went beyond cookie-cutter "disobedience". This was a nearly-feral horse that had no respect for humans except as treat dispensers, which is something that is going to take a lot of work.

I hope his owner is up to the task.