When it rains, it pours! (But the sun invariably does come out.)

Derby had a regularly scheduled farrier appointment on Saturday that wound up being pretty eventful.  I got out to the barn early to go look for the three shoes Derby has thrown that I’ve not yet retrieved from his field.  Walking every inch of the turn out, I was able to find one.  Though I was disappointed to not find the others, I was happy to see that about half the field was drying nicely.  That said, the front third is still a morass of gooey, sucking mud.

As I tramped around, the sky darkened, and to my total disgust, fat raindrops started to fall.   The farm owner had seen the storm on the radar, and had kept the horses in. Hopes of the storm breezing past vanished quickly as the rain – and later the hail – fell in earnest.

As the storm raged, Derby stood quietly as I picked mud out of his ears and rubbed his forehead.  Joe cleaned up Derby’s hooves, commenting that they were pretty soft due to being wet for so long, and suggesting that I start painting them with Keratex.   He took a break as the storm really kicked up, causing the horses in their stalls to rear and pace.  Derby merely stuck his head in my armpit and tried to hide.

Things quieted down to the point were Joe felt OK about resuming work on Derby’s back feet.  After about a minute of work, he exclaimed, “Oh.  OH!  EWW.”   Apparently he found an abscess on Derby’s right hind, in the same rear quarter where he had one on January.  Derby hasn’t been lame on that foot (though I out off town for a while, so who knows) and it looks like it may have been draining for a bit.   The good news is that (touching wood) Derby isn’t lame.  I didn’t have time to ride but turned him loose in the indoor to play once Joe was done, and he looked really good.

I did finally have a decent ride today.  We went for 30 minutes (I’m still taking it easy since he’s been off and has definitely lost condition) but about half of that was solid trot work, so I feel like we’ll be able to have some decent lessons with Christy this week.   It will be good to get back on track, and I’m looking forward to a week in which I return to my normal routine.