On knuckleheads

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.  I discovered this on her right hip this morning.

Honestly mare, what have you done to yourself now????  As evidenced by the one flap of skin, the scratches start at the bottom left and angle to the upper right.  Bizarre. 

And on her left front:

Two little scratches, obviously not as deep as the ones on her hip.

Both areas were covered with dirt and had to be rinsed.  The only possibility that I can come up with is that she rolled on something sharp. But what?  Our pastures are not fenced with barb wire.  I walked to all of the sandy roll spots in her pasture, drug my boots through the sand, and didn't find anything but, well, sand.  I let Heather know so she can thoroughly check the other horses for marks and wrack her brain for what might have happened. 

Ruby did not seem to be sore, and neither spot could be rubbed by tack, so I decided to be evil and ride this morning anyways.  Ruby was a knucklehead from the get-go.  First, she tried to balk a few times when being led down the road. Now this could be because she does not like to walk on the soft edge of the road if there are (monster-hiding) trees on either side of said road.  I trimmed her yesterday so she may have been a little tender-footed on the pavement, but mare, honestly, if that is the problem why not just walk on the soft stuff?  She definitely walked faster when finally encouraged that the edge is the place to be.  When I got down to the corner to mount up, she attempted to graze instead of standing still, grrr.  When asked to move off, she took that as a cue to TROT ON.  No, mare, that is not what we're doing.  When she slowed to a walk, she decided I must want her to graze. No. Mare. 

We continued on and she was mostly good (other than the occasional trying to trot) until we turned around for home.  One day very soon, I'm going to have to ride Ruby out, and then round pen the tar out of her upon returning home.  But not today, it was waaaaay too hot.  The journey home was turning into a battle of sorts.  We did one-rein stops, we did stopping and backing, we did stopping and standing still, etc.  It wasn't like this every step of the way but still enough that I was getting pissed.  When we were approaching the barnyard gate, I could feel Ruby warring with herself again.  She knew what would happen if she picked up a trot or turned towards the gate without being asked, but her excitement again won out over her will power.  So, we trotted on down the road a ways, then we turned around and walked quietly back to the gate.  This was one of those rides where the horse and the rider really have a hard time getting in sync with each other but it was still a good training ride.  And I know I can't complain.  Not once was I in fear that she was going to do something dangerous that would get us hurt.  I'll take it.