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Spent some time out of the pen tonight just in the open. He's struggling with lead changes. I'm going to need to find us a trainer soon. I want to make sure I'm not sending him confusing signals.

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It's been a while since I posted. Lots of things have been going on. My dad had some serious health issues that could have been fatal, my work has been really bad (thanks Trump for all the tariffs) and I lost someone. However in some ways it's been good. I've refocused on taking care of myself. I've learned that while no one has talked about it there's so much mental health problems that's in my DNA that I have to make keeping tabs on mine a priority. I've refocused at the gym. I'm standing on my own again. I like myself again. The horses and I spend lots of time together. I may have to soon go on an extended work trip so they may have to go back to boarding. Life is a gamble but I'm still in the game

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As calm and easy going as this guy is now I think it's time for another ride. I had promised some people I'd wait until they were here so I'd have someone around in case it went bad. I had a friend tell me that I needed to learn how to let others care about me and let them help. I tried it didn't turn out well. I think it's time to work to Oz's schedule. He's ready for at least a little saddle time in the round pen. Hopefully I have a from the saddle pic soon.

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Some people have dogs that run beside them in the driveway, I have Joe the pony.

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The boys moved out to the house with me yesterday. I'm definitely looking forward to getting rid of the almost 2 hours of driving to see them. The round pen will be going up this. It will give me time to kick up my gym time. Need to get 25 pounds back off for sure.

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Putting up fence to bring Oz home to live with me. Hoping to have him and Joe the pony here by the weekend. I'm a little nervous being on my own with them actually. Although I've already had several friends offer to check in on us. One has offered to stay with them when I travel for work. That will be great!

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Oz is improving with every outing. Tonight we worked in full tack with his bit in. He's getting super relaxed. Also I never picked up the whip tonight. At most just waving the end of his lunge line was all that was needed to keep his attention. While I wanted to hop on so bad, I wanted to be responsible. There needs to other people around to watch us both the first few rides.

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We worked outside last night again. There cars, people talking and other horses to distract him. It took him a little bit to find focus. We are going to have to change up our routine, instead of looking at me he’ll instantly start the pattern. He’s moving better every day and last night wanted to do nothing but lope at first. I ended up running it out of him for a bit. Then he worked perfect. Which tells me here needs more exercise.

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He's becoming less afraid of the tubes. He knows treats are on the other side. Before this we lunged outside around other people. So much improvement the last week. No uncomfortable running or getting worked up. He still has a tendency to be afraid he's going to be in trouble if he's not on a full trot. He's finally relaxing though, leaving his head down and just walking without a care. It's a win we both needed. It's finally not a fight with him on everything once it's time to go to work. I'm excited to see what he thinks of all our together time once he moves.

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I'm actually embraced by this photo but here's the poor guy's feet. You can see by how much of the front frogs are gone the extent of the thrush. The shiny hoof has Pete's goo already on it. If you guessed he's lame on the bottom left hoof you'd be right. You can see how bad the toe is rolled over. The good thing is that he's letting me handle his feet more and more. They also stay so much cleaner after his trim. With that there's not much to do other then give him plenty of love and ground work training until his feet and frogs grow out. So he's moving in with me. Well he gets a big section of the grounds including by the house. It's pretty scary having him here but with all the improvement in his health with me personally caring for him the past couple weeks I can't leave it up to others.

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We finally figured out how to go left. His level of abuse at some point is becoming more evident. He works himself up so much on the lunge line. When he sees the lunge line come out he only wants to trot or run to the right. He gets very nervous/scared doing anything else. His front leg is still sore and honestly I'm expecting it'll be a couple months before his feet heal enough to rule them out. In the mean time we're going to spend our time building trust together on the ground.

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Yesterday our friends came over for a play day. Oz got a pedicure and I learned about trimming. His thrush is completely gone and healing has commenced. Poor Oz has not had good care for his feet. They all show a history of abcesses. Oz has never wanted to lunge left, he refuses. Yesterday we discovered that if we start with half circles against the fence Oz would go left with some encouragement. By the end of tonight we lunged correctly both directions and at a walk instead of Oz wanting to take off while lunging. Continuing work with desensitizing including the scary tarp and tubes.

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The battle between scary hanging tubes and the joy of treats. While we're giving his feet time to heal up, we've gone back to some desensitizing ground work. On a side note I had my first leg day after my banged up ribs. Walking has not gone well. Ha ha ha

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It's been a while since I gave an update. My niece loved Oz so much that I ended up buying her this pony. About 6 weeks ago Oz threw me off cracking some ribs. From there we've fought lameness, thrush infection and a bad trim. I've done nothing but study hoof care. However hopefully we are finally on the road to recovery. Today him and Joe got to play together.

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Last weekend she was scared to be in the stall with Oz this Saturday she wanted to help brush him. To quote my niece "he's to pretty to be dirty" lol. Which lead to a second brushing after he decided to roll in the arena during turn out. I also learned not to put her in charge of the bag of baby carrots. Because she thinks he needs treats all the time. LMAO

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Oz update

Well my buddy was kind of a shit head this week. He fell in the mud on the one warm day that he could have been ridden. He's good now but the yard is covered in ice so we didn't want to get him out. Hopefully next week things straighten out. I think part of the problem is with the weather being so cold he's not getting enough turn out time. He's got energy to burn.

He got to meet my niece on Saturday. Watching them size each other was interesting. However a few carrots later he warmed up pretty quick. She took a bit longer. However after he tried to pull on the fuzzy part of her stocking cap it was fine. She decided that they take cute pictures together.

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Gym time

As I'm getting my ass kicked tonight at the gym I realized something. A year ago I had to constantly be reminded to keep my shoulders back. I hadn't developed the muscle structure to hold my upper back in shape for the weights I wanted to lift. Tonight while I was training my back it dawned on me that I no longer needed to be told. I lift 4 times the amount of weight I did two years ago. The same when I trained biceps.

There are times when you can't see progress because it's slow but it's still there. You can't give up because one day you'll look back and see that you made this huge step in life when you weren't looking.

There's probably a metaphor in this for other parts of my life as well. If I just step back and look.