When the Human is Away, the Goose Will Play

I went up to NJ the first week of April to spend some time with my family. Goose had been going so well, was starting to get a little fitter, and I was hoping to not let him have a week off during a critical point in conditioning (seriously this horse gets three days off and gains 100lbs and loses all muscle) but luckily he's a chill dude and I knew that the week off at least wouldn't affect his brain. 

Turns out he would have needed a week+ off anyway. Not only was I away that first week of April, but our barn manager was too so we had an army of awesome barn people holding down the fort for feeding and maintenance. But you know what that means: when owners and BMs are away, the horses will play. 

This giant turd got himself stuck in a gate. I got a call on Tuesday from my barn friend who I knew was feeding that morning and immediately thought, "well, Goose is probably dead". Does anyone else do that when their BM or someone from the barn taking care of the horses calls out of the blue? It's totally my default. 

"Please do not take a picture and send it to my mom, she will be FURIOUS" Goose, probably

So yes, Goose got himself stuck in the gate. The longer you stare at the above picture, the more you think WTF. He's turned out with a four year old mare right now, Scarlet, and was next to a gelding he doesn't love who was out with two mares too. As the ladies were all coming into season, my best guess is that Scarlet was making out/fighting with Lewis over the fence line and Goose somehow got in the middle, reared up (probably to get away, rearing takes a lot of effort he would never willingly exert) and landed on the gate. Apparently he just waited very patiently until an adult came to disentangle him. Good Boy. 

I love barn friends who take pictures of things for me.  Where that bent nail is is roughly where the puncture was.

There was no heat or swelling in his legs but he did wrench a shoe around pretty well so they got that off and I texted my farrier. Goose was pretty lame, but we assumed it was his shoe situation so they kindly wrapped his foot with some magic cushion and I had no less than four barn friends checking up on him and taking care of him while I was gone. I was not in NJ for fun reasons so the added stress of any Goose-related incident had me reeling a bit.

He just wanted a silver hoof to go with his pink fly boots, duh.

My farrier went out Friday, so three days post Goose-gate situation, and found he actually had a puncture, which accounted for the lameness. We treated it as an abscess and kept him shoeless, and a week later he got the shoe back on, hasn't abscessed (hopefully won't at all but we'll see) and was sound by Friday. I rode him last Wednesday and Thursday and he was 98% sound so we did short walk rides and only a little trot to see where he was at and by Saturday he was feeling his total normal self. 

Testing the toes out at home

After having the better part of two weeks off, I wasn't about to do anything crazy with him this weekend but when the barn crew talked about going trail riding in Camden I was all about it. My other barn friend is now leasing Scarlet, and her mom is riding her gelding, Pari for the summer. For only their second trail ride, we were going to keep it slow and steady which sounded perfect for Goose. A nice chill ride on gorgeous sandy trails in perfect weather? Yes please! 

Goose behaved like a gentleman all day, start to finish. I have a lot going on right now, and a nice day with friends was exactly what I needed. We rode for about two hours, which was slightly longer than expected. We ride on Hunt land, and came across a hound in the distance on our way back. We took a different trail wanting to avoid running into any training or hound walking (it was not a hunting day) and then veered off once again thanks to riding alongside a pasture with a loud donkey and mares who took off galloping at the sight of us. We didn't need to set off any of our horses so we took a different trail again, which took us slightly off course but in the end we made it back to the trailer! Pretty sure we jinxed ourselves since we discussed throughout the ride how easy it was to find our way back to the pipeline and therefore the trailers. Oops. 

Waiting for Pari to catch up so taking a cookie break

Hard to see in this picture but he's wearing his Sparkle Bitch bonnet from If The Bonnet Fits. It's my favorite. 

We picnicked after untacking with mimosas and snacks before loading up to head home. Goose felt great the whole time and was happy to walk on a loose rein for the duration. He'll get today off and I'll do my best to get back to a more routine riding schedule this week, though I'm about to have a lot going on so we'll see how successful this plan is. More on that later.

A sleepy Goose about to head home.

Hope you're enjoying some gorgeous spring weather wherever you are! I cannot stress how happy the sun is making me this year after what felt like a never ending winter.