After a brief respite during which Steen got to go for a few days without his blanket and it almost felt like spring, the weather has turned unpleasant again. Last Sunday was wet and chilly and we headed to the barn for Duke Day. Bear and Steen were both soaking and filthy and when we… Read more »
Horse Thoughts
Lesson Three
Friday found us pulling into the barn and grumbling a bit that there was another car in the parking lot. (I concede we are incredibly spoiled in that we often have the place to ourselves, but we still grumbled.) Then we went indoors and discovered it was worse than we thought. One of the other… Read more »
A Tune-Up, and Tunes
Yesterday we drove back from Chicago in the morning, and 1:00 found me at the barn waiting for Bear’s turn while the chiropractor adjusted a couple other horses. To pass the time I brought Steen indoors and hopped on. He was good for our very brief ride, but soon it was time to transfer my… Read more »
A Walking Lesson
We’re trying to have Friday be the day that Robin gives me a lesson. So today was the second lesson (last Friday I took advantage of good snow to go skiing and we had the lesson on Sunday). When I went to get Bear out of the pasture he was not eating. This might be… Read more »
Another Ride, Another Lesson
On Monday I went to the barn alone and had a simple but lovely bareback indoor ride on Steen. He was on his best behavior and although I only rode for a short time, I enjoyed the trip out quite a bit. I intended to go again mid-week, but we’ve had crazy-cold weather (like -18°).… Read more »
Super Bowl Sunday!
And no one was at the barn. It was perfect. We were hoping this would be the case because we planned on Robin giving me a little lesson. But first we let the guys run around the arena. After that, Bear stood like a dream for grooming and tacking. He’s been getting a little fidgety… Read more »
A Romp and a Lesson
We had a warm day today with temps in the 30’s. Brian and I figured the barn would be quiet this afternoon so we headed out with a plan. I’m going to attempt to give Brian a ‘real’ lesson once a week. Of course I’m always around to offer advice and lend a hand, but… Read more »
The Perfect Patient
The storm that was blowing in on Tuesday night stuck around and dropped nearly two feet of snow on us. Cathi advised us that there was no getting to the barn, certainly not for someone without 4-wheel drive. And that worked out because there was also no getting a car out of our garage. Brian… Read more »
A Boo Boo
Sometime over the weekend Bear got a good sized scratch (or a small cut, if you prefer) on the back of his left hind leg. We checked it out on Sunday, and he was a very good patient. Today we drove out to make sure the bandage was still there and that nothing had gotten… Read more »
Bandaged Bear
Brian and I dashed out to the barn this afternoon to check on Bear as a ‘blizzard’ rolled into town. We found him munching on the bale, his coat fluffed out and poofy. We brought Bear inside (and left Steen outside, AGAIN, much to a certain paint’s chagrin) and checked the leg. No visible swelling… Read more »