April's Almost Up! — Catherine Sauer

Holy crackers, we are almost through April!

I guess I may have let that whole New Year’s Resolution lapse a little bit in the last month… Well, I promise it’s because I’ve been busy! The accomplishments of the last month:

We have a trailer!

For my birthday at the beginning of April, I purchase a new-to-use 2005 Brenderup Prestige horse trailer. It needed a little bit of TLC, including a new floor. The first week of the month, my dad came out to help me with this new beast machine, with some pretty spectacular results!

Things we tackled:

rotting floor
resealing the doors and window
repairing the electrical
epoxy hardening the walls and door at key structural junctions
reinforcing door hinge
new doorstops / keepers

Things still to be tackled:

tack / equipment storage
a few more spots to harden with epoxy
repainting
kick panels
new stabilizer jacks on the rear
LED light installation
upgrade ramp / door closures

In short, the top list was the stuff that needed to be dealt with to make me feel comfortable loading a horse. The second list is largely cosmetic or enhancements to what’s there. Except the stabilizers, which are going to be installed this weekend.

Factor’s April Hooves brought to you by… Mom?

Oh boy, this one is a biggie. My trimmer came down with COVID, and it put them in the hospital! I got the news with about 2 weeks on our current trim, so next thing you know it seemed like a somewhat logical progression to keep at what I’ve been learning through watching my trimmer work.

While of course I cannot wait my trimmer to make a recovery and feel well again to ensure Factor’s feet are cared for, but I truly do enjoy the opportunity to learn more about how to care for my horse’s feet. I’m hopeful we’ll see our knowledgeable person again in the next month though, since I’m doing just the best I can through an understanding of what I’ve seen, Facebook groups for Barefoot Sporthorses, and trimming videos. It’d be nice to ensure the professionals are back in the game before I do something that’s timely to return from.

Stall Repairs!

During the early parts of April, I bunkered down and pulled up the mats from Factor’s stall. After doing a deep clean, I re-leveled the concrete underneath where the stall’s previous inhabitant (a pig) tried to dig through the concrete.

Pony man jumps!

Oh yes, that’s right. My little OTTB baby and I went over our very first “jump” under saddle! In this case, I don’t just mean that Factor determined a ground pole was jump-able… It was a flower box between standards, and he was perfect! We did the line a couple of times just to let him get used to the feel of it - based on his pricked ears and locked on gaze every time we went around, I’d say we’ve found something this boy really loves!

Our chiropractic adjustments are setting!

Factor had a chiropractic visit at 5 weeks from his last, to some phenomenal results. His hips seem to be holding structurally in place now, which is testament to the balanced muscle building we’ve been doing. Now we’re seeing his shoulders are the more consistent area to focus on, but even those are improving from where we started.

We’re going to try another five week gap between visits, and see what we have to work with. It’s entirely probable that he’s now gaining enough new fitness that he’ll be able to hold onto these adjustments more consistently and farther apart. Time and continued good training efforts will tell :)

So, all in all, a busy month! I realized about a week ago that I hadn’t updated this blog, though, and there has been so much to fit in! To cap it all off, here’s a little bit of my boy going around today on the lunge - it was rainy and gross, and seemed like the perfect sort of excuse to work on some poles.