After the cold storm, we got a hard freeze, but the last few days have been nice: sunny and in the 50s. Laredo has put on a bit of a hay gut with his winter coat, which isn’t helping with his energy level. Yesterday I worked on trotting. We would trot for a few minutes… Read more »
Horse Thoughts
Chilly Sunday
Today we got buckets of rain. While it was raining, it stayed relatively warm but after the storm passed temps began to plummet. We headed out to the barn in the early evening because we knew at the very least Steen would uncomfortable. He was. He met us at the gate, nickering and shivering. We… Read more »
Rest
I was excited to get on Laredo again after everything we saw and learned at the Martin Black clinic. There was one young, green horse in the group of riders that often bucked when asked to lope, and a couple of other horses that were kicking up for various reasons. It was great that Laredo… Read more »
Getting Better With Age
I’ve been feeling a bit bad lately that my horse’s injury means I’m putting the lion’s share of time on Laredo, who Brian and I are supposedly sharing. So today we did a swap and I rode Bear. Bear is in great shape lately. The extra hours we’ve been putting on him to compensate for… Read more »
Back in the Spurs
For some reason, I stopped riding in my spurs this summer. I guess things were just going really well for Bear and I, and I wanted to see how just my legs would work. It turns out they worked quite well. But then I noticed some problems. Lately Bear has not been excited to walk,… Read more »
Ridin’ High
We were out of town Thursday thru Monday. We went to the Chicago area to audit a Martin Black clinic, which was great. The setting was small and intimate, only eight riders and a handful of auditors. Martin gave all the riders a lot of one on one attention, and we learned a whole lot… Read more »
Some Steen Time
This leg injury has had so many complications I’m hesitant to say it is healing for fear of bringing some change for the worse down upon us. But I’m going to say it anyway. Steen is getting better. The end is finally in sight. The large swollen ridge below the cut has started to go… Read more »
Moving Out
Bear and I have been enjoying the open spaces of fall. We are still riding primarily on the strip, but with the soybean field nearby all mowed, it makes it easy to venture out a short ways or a medium long ways. So I have taken to exploring on Bear a little more. Just the… Read more »
Looking for Life
Laredo’s shoulder appears to be healed, so I’ve had two long rides on him. Although at first it seemed like the weeks off didn’t have much of an impact on his training, after a few rides we’ve seen some backsliding. Our biggest challenge with Laredo is lack of energy. I don’t think it’s physical energy. It’s… Read more »
Vet Visit #3
Although I am by no means an expert in managing leg wounds, it has seemed to me the last five days or so Steen’s wound has not been healing. It hasn’t been getting any worse, but it hasn’t been getting visibly better either. On Monday temps swung upwards and we’ve had unseasonable warmth. I also noticed increased… Read more »