The new year has started off pretty busy and trips to the barn have been a bit scarce.
Last week we had some visitors:
My brother Jesse and his wife Susie came to Iowa via England from Hawaii, on their way back to Arizona (don’t ask.) And remarkably all my dire warnings to them to be prepared for horrible weather proved to be unnecessary. We had sunny days in the 50’s and 60’s.
Last Friday we took them to the barn with us. Jesse rode Steen a bit in the outdoor arena, but Steen was playing his “pick up the trot constantly” game. Jesse stuck with it for quite a while, and Steen did improve to some degree, but it still wasn’t the easiest ride for either of them.
Susie had a nicer ride on Bear, who was a little sticky in certain spots but otherwise well behaved for her. Jesse hopped on Bear for a bit too, and that went well.
I also rode a little bit, and Steen at least wasn’t doing the trot thing to me. I didn’t ride long, though, because Steen had a cut on his left front foot that looked just big enough I didn’t want to risk taxing him. There was also a bit of swelling around the ankle, but it went down while we had him moving around, so I thought that was a good sign.
Ride Time: 0:20
Horseback hours YTD: 0:20