Last week was a bit of a relaxed one around here, by our standards.

My trainer was out of town, so we had the week at home to ourselves with no lessons or training rides. I figured it was a good opportunity for a little mid-season semi-break-ish/refresh, so Presto did a lot of hacking and long and low stretchy flat days (and a dressage day and pole day just to remember we are indeed a semi-trained animal). I’m not sure how much Presto really enjoys staying home and not going on adventures, but it’s good for his stomach to have a little break from all the trailering he does all the time.

The break also happened to fall over the boys’ scheduled annual dental appointment, which worked out well. The dentist thought Henry looked fine to wait another 6 months (a win for a horse with previous dental issues), Presto got done and looked pretty routine with nothing remarkable, and Rubes… well… it was her first time seeing him and let’s just say I wish I’d had her come sooner. His mouth was a situation. Ramps and hooks galore, lesions all over the back of his mouth from his teeth, and his whole jaw was just completely locked.

I chose to tackle all his aftercare in the order that I did (stomach, feet, chiro, joints, massage, teeth) partly because all of my horses get their teeth done at the beginning of the year anyway and partly because he wasn’t showing any signs of a major mouth issue. He eats great, is an easy keeper, doesn’t drop food, and has shown no particular issue with the bit or had any overt sensitivity near his jaw/tmj. Like… sure he’s a tight and tense animal but he’s an OTTB and there’s a whole lot of potential reasons for that (including stuff all the other aftercare has addressed). So I prioritized things as I saw them and started knocking them off one by one. Naturally, though, horses specialize in making us second guess ourselves in hindsight. Should have started with his mouth.

Basically the dentist described it as the mouth being the first in a line of dominos, and that when the mouth is locked in place like his was, the rest of the horse has a hard time moving as it should, too. That horses with mouths like his are often “a chiropractic nightmare”. She rattled off a laundry list of issues that can be caused by that, and it was like ticking boxes. Yup yup yup. Him to a T. She went on to say that he had zero anterior posterior movement of his mandible and that would have prevented him from being able to properly lift his back, and that he likely had headaches and sensitivity/pain in his TMJ pretty much constantly. Awesome. I feel terrible for not having done the teeth sooner.

She worked on him for quite a while, saying she’d do what she could all at once but that this was going to take time to fix entirely. She asked if I had any kind of PEMF (I was like “funny you should say that, my MagnaWave gets here next week!” She was DELIGHTED to hear that.) and suggested a few days off with bute, then riding him as long and low as I can get him to go for a while as he starts to loosen back up. She’ll come back in 6 months to keep working on it.

I got back on him for the first time yesterday and… yeah. He definitely feels better. The tension is notably reduced, his ability to properly bend left and right was immediately better, and he’s seeking the long and low more readily. His head doesn’t feel like he’s just sticking it in one place and holding it there, I have more options for moving him around. It will take time to totally iron everything out through his body but there is a significant noticeable change in how he feels under tack.

So that was… an experience. An expensive experience, but a fruitful one. I’m going to have him chiro’d again soon, and when the Magnawave gets here he’s gonna be the PEMF king.

In other Rubes news, we officially got our acceptance to the 2025 RRP Makeover! I was waiting for the acceptance emails to go out before I launch his The Bleu Team initiative (more to come on that) so now I’ve got some work to do to get all that stuff ready to go. I’m hoping it’ll be something fun for all the Ruby Bleu fans.

Also – last week Henry turned 18. EIGHTEEN. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

I’m so not ready to accept the fact that he’s a full fledged senior. Old enough to buy his own cigarettes, or vote (really could have used him in the last election tho tbh).

He had a fun birthday week though, getting to pony some of the coming 2yo’s around the farm. Aka wield his authority with no mercy, and exert his superiority over the youth. His absolute favorite things.

It’s also hard to believe those kiddos are almost 2. Since we didn’t have any foals last year they’re our youngest currently on the farm. NOT FOR LONG, THO! As of tomorrow our first mare of 2025 will be at 320 days, which means we’re only a few weeks away from the kickoff of Foaling Season. I am equal parts super ready (because baby horses, duh) and definitely not at all ready (because foaling season is scary AF and no one gets any sleep).

We did get some WiFi cameras up and working in the barn though, thanks in large part to my brother. I am delighted to have the cameras in there, it should make foal watch much easier than it was last time.

We’ll also be able to give Patreon members access to the cameras so they can check in whenever they want, or help foal watch (there’s no such thing as too many eyes on the cameras). That’ll be a first!

I’ve chosen to keep the Baby Bets contest limited to Patreon this year as well, since it’s just a lot easier for me to keep track of things there vs when it’s public and I end up with DM’s on multiple platforms, emails, comments here, etc. There are seven (SEVEN!!!!!!!) foals coming this year and I’ve already got a lot on my plate, so it makes sense to at least try to set myself up for success by making it as simple as possible. The contest IS, however, open to all membership tiers, so if you’re a member, please check your dashboard!