He's got a donk.

....as in booty, not donkey. Add donkeys to the list of things he dislikes. Donkeys = pure EVIL, according to Digby.

Well, I had a very cute clever blog about Digby and how he's doing... and Blogger ate it. So, in a much more boring explanation, not much is going on Digby wise. But that's his little pen. Pretty small but he's very happy going out all night, every night. He has a shed to go in, which is just off to the right. He's been partying pretty hard with the ponies over the fence and has some battle wounds.

There's a large cut under his lip as well.

Other than that, lots of treats, lots of grooming, lots of nothing. His likit toy is fixed and he was SO excited that they had returned! He's getting rechecked in about two weeks for soundness so until then, life is pretty boring. I see him every day but now that he's going out, he's less thrilled to see me. Hay is obviously way more interesting than me..... unless I have those extra tasty treats. Then I'm pretty cool. :)

Career opportunities for a bay 12 year old Thoroughbred gelding...

Digby was officially upgraded to turnout 12 hours a night in his tiny little pen last Saturday. Yay! Much rejoicing! I'm not entirely sold on the fact that it was due to his soundness because he has been sound at the walk for a while now. I'd have to guess it's more likely due to my safety, his safety and the safety of anyone who handles him that it's best for him to go back on turnout. He's very, very pleased by this decision. In fact so pleased that he managed to escape the other night during some wicked thunderstorms. The horses were left in due to torrential rains and some fairly scary winds and other fun thunderstorm things. Digby having clearly heard the night before that he was allowed to go out all night now, decided to take things into his own hooves when he did not go outside at the correct time. He was found happily grazing next to the lesson ponies the next morning, no harm no foul. His stall door remains completely in tact so how exactly he got out in the first place is anyones guess. Personally, I'm thinking he's been watching me snap and unsnap the double ended snap that holds his door closed for weeks now and has mastered it... :)

The next step is riding! He gets a reevaluation around the middle of August and then the vet will say I can or can't ride. This has me thinking about what Digby's next job should be. I've gotten several opinions from those who have seen the images of his hoof that he should probably not be jumped any longer. As well as his congenital bipartite navicular bone, he also has navicular changes like a normal horse with navicular. Basically, it's degenerative so if I wanted to, I could continue to jump. But as a responsible horse owner (and moral person!), I simply can't justify jumping him knowing that it will essentially shorten his working career and eventually his ability to even be pasture sound. This leaves me wondering... now what? Does Digby want to become a driving pony? He's pretty cute and has pulled a sled a few times without much fuss. But he can get kind of spooky... so maybe a dressage pony? But he's not built that well for dressage and tends to get bored with flatwork even if I don't mind it. What about western pleasure? He'd look SUPER cute all decked out in western tack and I think I'd like all the bling... but who's ever heard of a Thoroughbred western pleasure horse? Not saying we couldn't be the first! I've toyed with the idea of being a trail horse mixed with some dressage... but Digby thinks walking/trotting trail rides are a total waste of time. When do we get to gallop and jump? Trail rides are basically out of the question generally. Haha oh Digby... it's always an adventure. Any ideas on what Digby's next job should be? Besides giving me kisses for all the treats I bring, obviously!

Also, if you're reading this, feel free to comment at the bottom! Digby loves attention :) I'll be sure to tell him you commented!

Winning.

His look says it all. "You drugged me, hosed me off, sprayed me in the face, and basically took advantage of me. I hate you."

You can't always get what you want

In the north east part of the US (or actually I think the entire US) there's been a heat wave for days. Topping out at 105 degrees today with a heat index of 118 (!!!), I decided Digby was probably sweating just standing in his stall, even with his fan on full blast. I work outside so I know I was sweating even if there was a fan around! After work, I drove over to pay the stall bound Digs a visit. Bad idea 1) I was hot and tired. Bad idea 2) I decided that it was so hot, he would probably behave outside his stall without a little "vitamin a", aka ACE to make him sleepy. Bad idea 3) There were people also hosing off their horses.

Honestly, had I been kicked in the head, I might of deserved it for thinking this was a good idea in the first place. So I jumped out of my car and got to Digbys stall to find that he had attacked his Likit ball last night. It was currently in three pieces. He looked rather pleased with his accomplishment. Obviously, he was annoyed that I hadn't put any more Likits in the past few days. Bad owner! Sorry Digby but they're like 4 bucks a pop and you go through one in under 24 hours... I can't afford to keep it fully stocked at all times. So I gather up the pieces, one of which is still attached to the wall (which is remaining there until I bring a screwdriver to take it out tomorrow. Hopefully it's still in the wall when I get there.) and take them out of the stall. I'm hoping this is fixable but it doesn't look good. He's out of hay so I toss him a few more flakes and put his halter on, chain securely over his nose. Ace or no ace, I always lead him with a chain now because he's, well, kind of mad about the whole stall rest deal and has no problem informing me of this.

We walk briskly down the barn aisle to the end, where a little girl is petting her horse. As she goes to say hi to Digby, he decides that she is pure evil and quite possibly satan. He leaps in the air, attempts to flee out of the barn, turns around and snorts at her. Mind you, she's like 9 and did nothing to scare him. Really Digby? Satan?? I don't think so... at this point, I begin to rethink my "oh it's so hot he'll be good I don't need drugs" decision but I'm soaked in sweat, I've been sweating all day and I just want to hose off my horse and go home to shower and sit in the air conditioning. Out we go. There's two other horses being hosed off but one leaves right as we get there. I don't recognize either horse but Digby is immediately IN LOVE. He gets super upset when the little gray pony leaves and throws a tantrum. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was an 8. That being said, I work at a breeding farm so I see and deal with everything from newborns to basically unhandled yearlings to racehorses to our 31 year old tease mare. I tend to see some wild explosions from time to time. The fact that this was an 8 is pretty darn impressive. I just start hosing, hoping he'll settle down to avoid killing the chestnut that's a few feet away. Digby decides that he is NOT going to stand even remotely still and proceeds to jig, leap in the air, rear, fly backwards and otherwise misbehave the entire time I'm hosing him off. I didn't even get to his hind end before I thought "this definitely isn't safe..." To make this story even more interesting, the chestnut leaves because he's starting to get upset that Digby is all over the place. At that point, I'm basically a kite at the end of a rope and decide to bail completely on the idea. I somehow throw the hose into the correct hanging spot and put on my best "I'm leading an unbroke yearling who's really bad" face. About half way back to the barn, Digby pulls his new favorite move, leap sideways, spin, rear, strike directly at your face. Uh, what? Not ok. Fairly sure I felt a breeze as his hoof missed my face. Not that a breeze didn't feel nice considering it was 105 degrees out, a breeze from a wild hony hoof is not exactly enjoyable. I hit him pretty hard and prayed he wouldn't kill me the rest of the way to his stall, ignoring his best impression of a wild mustang trying to protect his herd. Or something really, really bad. Upon returning to his stall, he promptly marched over to his hay and proceeded to eat like he hadn't been fed in years. Judging from his increasing weight, that statement probablyyy isn't true.

To sum up, in order to exit stall Digby will be getting his allocated dose of vitamin A. The only exception of the rule is to go to the cross ties that are 5 feet from his stall. It makes me wonder though... is it worth keeping him in the stall? Can't a girl and her wild hony beast hope for a bit of hand grazing time without any drugs involved? In the meantime, Digby needs to listen to the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want"...

Digby vs Stall Rest

Digby has been slightly amazingly lately. That's saying something considering I think he's practically the best hony (for those of you non-horse people: hony is a clever nickname for those equines who are stuck above the legal limit of pony by an inch or two.... hence horse/pony = hony) to ever grace the earth and perfect in just about every way... and he fully agrees with my decision. Digby is stuck inside on stall rest due to an injury that we're trying to heal. This requires lots of standing around doing nothing. He dislikes this. Greatly. He goes outside in a little paddock about the size of his stall for two hours a day to "clear his head." Also a dislike. It probably does nothing but give him the full opportunity to attack/jump on/play with whoever is near him. But I'm sure that part amuses him, as he plots the demise of whatever poor soul is leading him that day.

Now, I must be anthropomorphizing because he is a horse right? How could a horse possibly be plotting the demise of a human? Wrong. Very, very wrong. This may be the smartest horse ever. He learns and plots and plans his attack at the time where he's most likely to win whatever battle he's fighting. That said, Digs is a biiiit high maintenance. He demands my constant attention and gets irritated if I'm doing anything but doting (read: stuffing treats into his face) and confessing my undying love for him. The fact that he now no longer gets ridden or goes outside? This need for attention has tripled. So every day, I trot out to the barn to groom him and of course feed him whatever tasty snack I can wrangle up. I'm only allowed to groom him and give him some TLC but he seems to enjoy the company. Or maybe it's just the carrots.

A few days ago, Digby went to nudge me (apparently he did not approve of the particular grooming technique I had been doing... who knew currying was such a big deal?) and shoved the metal stall door instead, causing it to swing open slightly. Now the door isn't snapped closed because I'm in the stall with him and I'd be locking myself in and I don't use a halter because really, I'm too lazy to put it on and take it off when I'm done. It's not like he can escape, right? We're in a stall for god sake. I shut the door that was only open an inch or two and forgot about it. The next day, while I'm slaving away to make him super clean, he shoves the door with his nose again harder so it swings open about a foot. I yelled at him to knock it off and moved on. He stands quietly then does it again. I yelled again. He did it a third time this time even harder so the door practically flung open. I chuckled to myself, thinking how smart he was and what an excellent facebook status this would make for all those who didn't believe horses were smart because it was very apparent my outdoor loving horse had just figured out how to open his stall door and escape. The third day after his "discovery", I came armed and ready for his nose shoving plan. He stood perfectly still and seemed to say "who, me? I'd never do such a thing!" Ok, I thought... maybe he's not so smart. Cue dramatic music. Digby has been hiding some secrets in that forelock of his. He waited until I was on the side furthest from the door bending over brushing his hind leg and shoved the door so hard it flew into the wall. I yelped, ran and closed it with him nearly half way out the stall. He did this twice (both while I was furthest away from the door!) before I decided I needed to take action. Obviously, my horse is smarter than me.... I'll fix this, I thought as I tied his lead rope to the door and the stall. So I go back to grooming, la la la, thinking about whatever, and unbeknownst to me, Digby is very casually chewing on his lead rope, untying himself. I did manage to stop him before he got it completely untied and fling the door open but I fear this battle of Digby vs stall rest has only just begun.

I can only imagine what he's going to do next.