The heat is on

Well, it’s officially summer here in Vegas. Not that it hasn’t been for the past two or three weeks, but now it’s consistently staying really really hot. And I mean you-don’t-know-you’re-sweating-because-it-evaporates-immediately hot. It’s seriously like sticking your whole body in an oven. Hopefully Vegas doesn’t do what happened last year: hit June and have 2 weeks of consistent 110+ degree weather. At night it still stayed over 100. Maaaaaaybe 99. So many horses colicked last year, including my mom’s. Cue 5 vet visits later and thankfully she was okay.

So when Amber didn’t have a single poop pile after her injection by 8 pm Monday evening, my mom and I officially began to worry. I went full on paranoid worried she might have an infection, is she colicking, does she have sand in her belly and I just don’t know about it even though she’s been on sand clear for practically her whole life?!  You know, typical horse mom. So we gave her electrolytes and waited (torture).

My mom checked on her for me the next morning since I couldn’t take any time away from work, and I was relieved to see she had about 3 piles. Not much compared to the amount she usually poops, but I’ll take it. I gave her some sand clear with her bute Tuesday evening, and thankfully Wednesday morning there were definitely more piles. We surmise it has more to do with the heat than with her injection. Her leg remains cool and I can’t see any swelling as of yet, and she’s shown no signs of tripping which is great.

She’s never really had any gastro problems, thank goodness (and knock on wood), but since we have a lesson on Saturday I want to make sure she’s drinking and feeling okay since we’ll be gone a few hours with drive time. So after a super long work day yesterday, I stopped by one of our local tack shops (I always feel better once I step in those) and bought some more electrolytes.

I hand walked her last night to let her stretch her legs and see how she looks. Personally, I think she looks really good! She looked much more relaxed with a lot more swing in her step. She was still a bit short going to the right, but I blame that on the fact that she got really tense because the quail were fluttering in the bushes. For some reason, the fluttering of wings of birds that she can’t see is her nemesis. She hates that. I mean, did she get swooped by a falcon or crow or something when she was little…? But, once she relaxed enough I could see a few good strides; I don’t think she relaxed enough to really get the swing she had in the beginning. But she did look much more comfortable! She was playful and wanted to buck a bit, and this was her face when I told her she was supposed to be resting and just walking:

Other than that it’s been super quiet here – just really nothing going on. My mom and I are both desperately wishing the days to go by faster so we can get our barn up, and of course that makes the days longer. But today is Thursday which means Friday may be slow but the weekend will pass by before we know it and they’ll be here! Seriously can’t wait.

This week is really killing me in terms of no horse time. My work is phenomenal about really trying to give me good hours so I can have pony time as much as possible (which I so appreciate), but this week people had a few family things so I’m the only one and have to hold down the fort. Unfortunately, it’s actually good because it forces me to walk a little, ice a lot and my hip’s been feeling much better so I should be pretty good to go for Saturday.

And I’m actually excited for our “lesson” on Saturday. I’ve done similar stuff before, but way long ago – like 12 years, and Amber hasn’t ever done this type of thing so it’s going to be new for both of us. I need to get back into the swing of English things, and she needs to learn some new stuff so I’m excited for it. Plus, I need to get my butt in gear because poor girl shouldn’t have to deal with me flopping around up there when we start doing harder things like jumping. I’ll also try to take lots of pictures of Saturday!