MF'ing Sherwood!!

 Yup. You heard me. I'll even write it out. MOTHER FUCKING SHERWOOD!!!! That mare. THAT mare. Gah!! I know this blog is about Andi, but we all know Andi's work schedule revolves around Sherwood's. And since she's been back in full work since she proved she was more than ready, he's been neglected. I have nothing to say about him.. Except he's been good hacking around the field at Chelsea's. Without shows or anything to work towards, and no real plans on what to do with him since we didn't end up doing the endurance race, he's just... hanging out.. So, Sherwood.

Sherwood had ONE event this year- ONE!!! We signed up for Palmer River yesterday. We took lessons and worked in the arena, and the only thing that I was really unsure of, was that the Deer Roast got scheduled for the day before. But seriously, I am not one who shies away from telling people to leave me alone because I have stuff to do the next day. LoL So.. that was what I did. She was pacing the fence line because I put Fancy away, but.. I figured she'd slow down and be fine. 

WRONG! I came down the next morning at a bright and early 5am, after about 2 hours of sleep because people were running through my house all night, and... she's got tiger stripes. From pacing so hard she worked herself up into a full body sweat, then cooled down and dried into tiger stripes from ears to tail. I was... horrified. So horrified. I mean, I can't bring her to an event looking like a tiger!! So I spent 30 minutes I didn't have currying the bejeezus out of her(you should have heard the curses I was throwing her way- her little brown ears were BURNING!), threw a cooler on over her because she was threatening to get crazy again, shoved some Perfect Prep in her face, and.. loaded her on the trailer for the 1.5h ride to the farm. 

Jess met me there, we did all the things we do- made sure Sher was set and happy hanging out in the trailer, went to get my paperwork, checked out where dressage was, walked XC twice, walked stadium on the way back, and.. prepared to get Sher ready for her normal 1/2h warmup. we backed her off the trailer, started grooming, and.. "Abbi, her back leg is hot.. does it look puffy to you?" Oh no... She was walking on it okay,  looked a touch stiff at the jog but seemed to work out of it, so we threw her saddle on and I hopped up, and... fail. Utter fail. Dead lame. So, hop off, saddle off, cooler back on, ice boots on, and let's walk around and eat some grass while we watch other people compete at something my stupid twat horse would have loved to do. Le sigh. Oh, Sherwoodigans... 

After a night tossing and turning, and kicking myself for being so preoccupied and aggravated with tiger stripes that I missed her being lame thereby subjecting her to 3 hours of unnecessary trailer riding, I have come to two conclusions:

1) Just Dorm her. Stop thinking she's got enough self-preservation to stop on her own. You know better, she's getting to the age that she can't just laugh off her own stupidity, so just Dorm her. 

2) Be better. Put your own shit aside and be the horseperson you can be. Pay attention, be in the moment, and be a better owner. 

So, here starts icing, bute-ing, and... praying. 

Please be okay, Sherwood. Please.