Crooked Legs

Please note the directions Eli’s toes are pointing.

This is why he has all kinds of boots and wraps. This is why he gets injections and chiro and massages whenever I can afford those things. Okay, well, the injections are mandatory whether my wallet likes it or not. This is why I cringe when I look back at him while he’s walking and see his hind feet rotating and twisting as he’s picking them up and setting them down. Although this last thing gets better with shoeing until about a week before he’s due for new shoes.

This is just how he stands, relaxed, chilling in the cross-ties while I stare at him wondering if he’ll straighten himself out or not.

It’s been in the 30s and too wet to ride the times I’ve been at the barn this week, but I am hoping that with slightly less cold weather and more sun that maybe I can ride my crooked horse tonight? I’m crooked, too, for what it’s worth, so just jot that down onto our lengthy list of why my horse and I are suitable for each other.

Eli got a new heavyweight turnout blanket (from Dover) and it’s what he’s wearing in these pictures. So far I really like it. Eli is not as hard on blankets as he used to be and this one isn’t rubbing hair off his shoulders. (I still need to clean his mediumweight turnout blanket but I don’t really like it as much as this one.) It’s only 600 denier polyester, so I wouldn’t put it on a more rambunctious horse or one who is outside all the time, but it works for Eli and isn’t impossibly heavy like his other heavy blankets. It doesn’t seem to slide out of place, either.

I think his bell boots are finally shredded, although they haven’t ripped in half or anything. They’re the stupid expensive Italian jumper bell boots but they have lasted longer than any other, cheaper pairs of pull-ons I’ve tried. Definitely worth the cost, as they have lasted over a year.