Let's see..... Where did I leave off? Well, Tapper got another week off and was on pain meds again. Last time it was Cami who hurt her and it was Tapper's fault for starting the fight. This time Autumn got her for no reason at all and since Autumn has hind shoes she managed to do quite a number on Tapper's right hind leg. So she's had both hind legs hurt in the past few weeks and then she bit me! (On the arm, I'm fine.) I'm thinking it was because she was in pain, but the marble seems to be throwing her behavior way off so we are going to get it out. She has to be in heat to have it removed so I will give her a shot later this month, 6 days before the vet comes, and that will put her in heat. The vet will do an ultrasound to make sure the marble is still in there, and then she'll reach in (I know - yuck!!!) and take it out.

Jazz is definitely getting a workout with Tapper out of commission. Carla, Julie and I rode Sunday and did a 2.5 hour loop. All the horses behaved although Jazz was a little stubborn and kept trying to find shortcuts home! We also met some very friendly cows that startled Jazz. Once he got a good look at them he was fine, but when he first saw them he jumped! Dolly is doing much better at keeping up with the other horses. I think she has figured out that Julie isn't a push-over... When we came home we didn't come through the field as usual, but continued up the road and returned via the driveway so that it would be different for Ziegy. We wanted to see how he behaved if we changed the pattern and he was fine! No silliness at all - hooray! Below is Julie on Dolly and Carla on Ziegy.

The vet was here yesterday to give everyone their flu shots. While she was here I had her check out Tapper's injuries and we discussed the marble plan above. She gave shots to everyone except Cami. They were all good for her except Ziegy - silly horse thinks the vet is really scary. We need to work on that... She also checked Faith's saddle fit. She recommended putting the saddle back a lot further than normal on Faith. She has a very long shoulder and in order for the shoulder to move freely under saddle it has to be back about 6 inches from where it would normally be. It looks a little different, but it makes it comfortable for Faith and that's what matters.

Amy has been working with Faith on the ground and under saddle. This photo is from yesterday when she rode Faith in the paddock. Today she saddled her up and I saddled up Tapper and we rode around on the property for a little while. It was a good way to get Tapper back into riding, she's still pretty stiff and she hasn't been ridden in about 3 weeks. Faith was good. She followed Tapper, but was not right on her tail and gave her plenty of space. She can be a little stubborn like Dolly (OK, they can be a LOT stubborn!), but she wasn't spooky, was curious about everything, and was a very good girl. She did get a little ouchy on the rocks, I think she may need front shoes for trail riding but we'll see.......