Well, spring has sure roared into town with deluge after deluge, overwhelming my already muddy pastures and leaving us all feeling like we live in a swamp. 4x the regular rainfall has a way of making everything so dreary!
The horses, however, like to remind me that they are resilient and perfectly content to play the part of little piggies wallowing in the plentiful muck. And I suppose my biceps and triceps are getting stronger courtesy of long currying sessions!
The show horses have all been enjoying some rest and relaxation; still getting conditioned and ridden, but very minimal jumping. Billy, of course, is still recovering from his broken splint bone obtained during the trailer ride down to Thermal, so he’s getting lots of stretchy work. Cassie and Evita both successfully and precociously stepped up to the heights I had hoped they *might* get to by the end of the season, so they’ve been rewarded with lots of trail rides and minimal jumping. And Bella has been working along as usual, just a little bit lighter, and has just started jumping again after a few weeks of a flatwork focus.
That has meant that the focus has been on the home horses; Socks, Rasen, Tori, and Sadie’s ponies.
Socks brought a little excitement into my world a few weeks ago when she stepped on a downed fence board and sustained a puncture wound in her frog. There were several terrifying days with a 3-legged horse where we were coming up with the worst case possibilities as we tried to figure out what was causing the lameness. The discovery of the downed board and the protruding nail, however, answered our questions and helped up locate the hole in her frog. And almost 2 weeks to the day, Socks got tired of acting like a patient and resumed her impatient (verging on cantankerous) attitude, sharing with us her feelings about being cooped up in a stall and small pen. Sadie put her back to work this week, and she is a much happier horse with a little exercise. I’m hoping that we can turn her back out with her mare herd this week.
Rasen BHS stepped into a new program on a lease with a really fabulous gal on the other side of the water. He remains for sale, but I’m giving them a little time to settle in with each other before resuming marketing activities. Word is, though, that he has been an absolute gentleman from day one, and has quickly become a barn favorite with his sweet, goofy personality and happy go lucky stance on everything from stall time to trail rides.
Tori (2014 Castellan x Canturo) has been the real star. She started the spring off with her first ever set of shoes. So with new shoes on board, she’s now entering the “real horse” realm. Her daily program has transitioned from “rides?” to rides!” It’s a lot of fun to watch a horse transform in the first few months under saddle, and I am excited to see where this one goes.
Sadie’s ponies have kicked back into work as well. Here are Sadie and Max jumping the Christmas tree this week:
The forecast is promising a lot of upcoming sun, and I’m sure looking forward to a few nice rides! 🙂