26, though idk when her birthday is exactly. I'm hoping to get her to 30.
Thank you. I'm hoping to get a few more years out of her. :)
I was hoping to be able to ride her, but she's improving slower than anticipated, so I probably won't get to ride her. But that's okay. I'm happy as long as she's happy.
As for her situation, it's a lil weird and sad. Her owner doesn't ever come to see her or anything. She just pays for the boarding fees and vet/farrier visits, and that's it. Apparently she has a lot of personal issues that are preventing her from coming out. When I started volunteering at the stables last year, I was told that I could take Sandy out of her stall and brush her because nobody else does anything meaningful with her. There's an old guy who lets her out to graze for a bit some days, but that's not really enough interaction to make a horse happy. So I took it upon myself to treat her like the queen she is and make her old age great. She was close to feral when I started working with her. She had no idea how to be loved and had no manners. I was determined to change that and now she's so happy and one of the better-behaved horses in the barn. I started her on a supplement for her weight and I schedule her farrier appointments and attend them. I can also attend any other appointments that she may need. I go out to see her at least 3x/week to at least say hi and give her a quick brushing. Her owner and I talk and she pays me back for everything I provide for Sandy. I'd offer to buy her, but the boarding fees are the only thing I can't afford right now. If her owner ever can't pay me back, that's fine because the board is what I worry about. I have everything else covered if need be.
So I do exercises to keep her old muscles and joints moving. We do lunging (me making her walk and trot in a circle), I make her walk backwards, I make her stretch her neck in different ways towards treats, and if we have the space for it, I walk her over ground poles and weave through buckets. It isn't super intense but it uses all the important muscles. She is very undermuscled and I'm trying to build a little back up on her. She's also recovering being very underweight as well.
I try to exercise her at least once a week. She's old enough and in poor enough shape, that if she were to get out of her routine, she'd end up deteriorating relatively quickly. Keeping her exercising will keep her healthy and she'll live longer. She'll never be super fit, but I'm trying to get her as good as she can be.
Thank you! My surgeon is really good, and I expect the surgery to go well. I am taking an entire month off of work to recover, so I'll have more than enough time to heal
She has that effect on a lot of people once they see that she's a good girl lol.
And thank you!
I've honestly been considering trying to find a race ar bed that'll fit a queen size mattress.
Thank you!
I sure do love being a wage slave in the good ol US of A.
🥲
I taught her the exercises I do with Sandy so she can help me with her training while I'm recovering from surgery next month. Sandy was so wonderful for her. :)
Her needs were taken care of (food, water, shelter) but that's it. She's finally getting used to socializing again
I love that too. The first time I took a curry comb to Sandy, she hadn't been brushed for years. She was just brown after me doing my best to clean her up for over an hour. Took so long for her to start looking better after grooming instead of worse.
The only pic I got because my visit was super short lol. It was so hot and humid.
She got crazy zoomies after her bath, rolled in the dirt, and ran around the round pen for a few minutes before she wore herself out. She had a great time and lots of people really liked seeing her enjoying herself like that lol. This pic was taken a few hours later after she dried completely and I did her braids and brushed her.
She got really spicy when I tried to clean one of her back hooves and almost kicked me in the head. I gave her a lil smack on the butt (not hard at all) and yelled at her and she stopped misbehaving and let me clean her hoof. I think she might have a little bit of arthritis in that leg and that's what had her so uncomfortable until I was able to get her foot held and supported properly. If she continues to show that discomfort, I'll get some horse arthritis gel to try out.
They totally would look better if I mathed out how many braids I'd need for the pattern I was going for lmao.
She was SO brave, y'all. I think it was the big ol pep talk I gave her. She did the "it's gonna eat me" dance at the hose, but eventually relaxed enough for me to get a lot of the dirt off. She didn't stop moving the whole time, but wasn't unmanageable. I'm so proud. I had to tell literally everyone I saw because it was such a big deal.
Sandy is still very dirty, but is considerably cleaner now. Next goal is to introduce soap lol. Her owner has some really nice horse shampoo and conditioner stored in the tack room that I'm gonna use.
It also started raining as soon as we were done, so we couldn't get any cute pics outside. I was gonna hitch her to a post inside for pics, but I was asked to help treat an infected hoof on another horse and that took a while.
I planned to tack Sandy up and work with her while she was wearing a saddle, but she decided to canter around the round pen when I took her out for grooming and she even jumped over some mud.
She tired herself out very quickly.
I also played some music while we were hanging out and she seemed to like it.
She got visibly upset when I rode around another horse after I was finished with her training and grooming and the barn chore I do to get to ride for free lol. I made sure she got a cookie to know she's still my fave.
Dave is the black horse and Joey is the brown and white one. Joey is always trying to get her attention, but she doesn't care about boys. She just wants to have a good time on her own lol.
I sponged her off today and she did not like it and was doing some grazing in the pic while I got a drink and rinsed the bucket.
We both got lots of good exercise in during the sponging because she kept doing the "it's gonna eat me dance" when I'd use the sponge and I wasn't giving up on the endeavor because I went through all the trouble of getting the stuff ready.
She eventually calmed down and I got a second round of sponging in and she was much less skittish that time. Maybe someday she'll get an actual bath. 🥲
It's 90F here and I was told she refused to leave her stall earlier, most likely because of the heat, so I'm just gonna leave her be today.
She was very spicy today over all. I think it's because she hasn't had any training sessions for about a hot minute.
We did a little bit of easy training today and then I let her graze for a while before I got assistance in treating her foot. It should be healed up by the time I go out on Wednesday!
She was very spicy about the whole thing, which is understandable given how her foot is infected. Hopefully she'll be feeling a bit better when I go see her on Monday.
I hate seeing her sore like this. I'm not used to dealing with thrush, so it's a bit hard for me to handle it alone. The horses I had as a kid had a much better farm to run around on, so their feet were always in great shape. Thankfully I have a lot of support and assistance in this time of learning and healing.
Just solidifies my hatred of theaters even more lol