Since I fell off Bear almost eight weeks ago neither one of us has been in great shape. I have been able to keep my riding up pretty well, so Bear still got out for some nice walk/trot rides, but we haven’t been doing much more than that. I’ve also been feeling somewhat stale from… Read more »
Horse Thoughts
Winter Attitude Adjustment
We had a dusting of snow last night, and temps were in the low 30’s when we trudged out to the pasture and saw Steen had made excellent progress in making his new blanket just as dirty as his old one. We went indoors to tack up. I wore a pair of boots I bought… Read more »
The Comfort Zone
We got back into town over the weekend and I had a busy few days with work, so I couldn’t get out to the barn. I was also a little tired from all the travel, so I didn’t really mind. Today was a nice afternoon, though. Sunny and not too cold. We arrived and I… Read more »
Happy to be Back
This Thanksgiving I experienced one of the greatest holidays injustices imaginable. I came down with the stomach flu 20 minutes before Thanksgiving dinner. I managed roughly four bites of turkey, a few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes and peas, and two forkfuls of apple pie. Then I had to lie down and suffer for several hours. I went to… Read more »
Arizona Horses
We went to AZ for Thanksgiving, and of course spent some time with the horses there. My sister has been riding more lately, and we were hoping to take Jak and Jo out on the trails. Unfortunately Jak seemed off to me the first day I tried to ride, so I rode for about five… Read more »
Working with Rojo
Over Thanksgiving Robin and I got out to Southern Arizona for a week to visit her family. As always, it was a really good time. And we definitely spent a lot of time with the horses. For the past few visits I’ve been working on getting a little closer to Rojo, my mother-in-law’s red Missouri… Read more »
New Territory
Friday was sunny and warm. I think the temps even got into the 70s. But I was exhausted. This was the first week of a busy three weeks at work. Plus we had severe wind warnings. I used that as an excuse not to go ride. Saturday was cloudy and not quite as warm, but… Read more »
Pre-Vacation Ride
We stopped at the barn on our way out of town for a “quick” ride. I knew I should probably revert back to the snaffle and give myself a chance to learn a bit more about the hackamore, but when I saw the beautiful set-up hanging in my locker, I couldn’t resist. So I put… Read more »
The First Cold Ride of the Year
While the sun was out and if felt good when I was walking home, by three o’clock the sun was low on the horizon and the west winds were cooling us down very quickly. Basically, it was the kind of weather Bear thrives in. And as a result, we had a pretty darn good ride. … Read more »
Stiff
Today I rode again in the hackamore. Things overall went fine, except for one thing. Overall, Steen was quite stiff in the neck. He wasn’t stiff when I asked for a big bend, only when bending through shallow turns. He was moving nicely through his body, but it felt like his neck was just rigid.… Read more »