Today Steen and I had our first real indoor ride at the new barn. And I must say, things went pretty well. When I first brought him inside he was nervous, as he’s been lately, but a little better than the last couple of times. He was also very clean and very fluffy, so grooming… Read more »
Horse Thoughts
Snowed Out
Steen spent most of the last week snow-locked in his pasture. The main problem was the door into the indoor arena from the pastures was covered in a huge drift. So, being unable to get him inside anyway, I didn’t see him after my Tuesday visit until yesterday. Sunday morning found Brian and I driving… Read more »
Snow!
We have a big storm rolling through this week, so I figured I’d better get out there and see Steen today just in case the roads are inaccessible for the next few days. I found him in a snowy pasture. The herds were a bit riled. I’m not sure if it was the weather or… Read more »
Catching Up
I’ve fallen a bit behind on the horse blogging lately. I started with my trip home for Thanksgiving. Although I did go on one nice long solo ride on my sister’s horse, Jak, it was a largely horse-free week. We returned to Iowa and I was quite Steen-sick. We went to the barn the day… Read more »
The Barn, Steen, Me and Mud
Here is the third in our Not-Highly-Exciting Video series. This one includes a little video tour of the barn, a walk out to the pasture where Steen lives and some grooming footage.
Starting Them Young
Today Steen and I had a glorious ride that involved no spooks, and a sustained, balanced, steady and not at all crazy lope out on the trails! Then we came home and I untacked just in time to receive some very special visitors. My friend, Adele, and her son Ben came out to meet Steen.… Read more »
Aid and A Bit
Brian went out last week for a solo ride on Cal, and things didn’t go so well for the two of them. Although she is trained Western Pleasure, Cal’s neck-reining sort of comes and goes as far as effectiveness is concerned, and Brian encountered increasingly frequent moments when she took his directional guidance with a… Read more »
Oh, Deer
On Friday, Steen and I hit the trails again, and things didn’t go so well. We started out with a mistake on my part. I assumed he’d be ok walking past a car he spooked at a few days ago. But he wasn’t. Within two minutes of the start of the ride, he’d treated me… Read more »
Three Times is a Habit
When I was a kid and had my first horse (and didn’t know what I was doing) I had a neighbor who would sometimes give me pointers. A few of her remarks really stuck with me – trite as they were. One of her favorites was”familiar breeds content,” and I have definitely found that one… Read more »
Out and About
Today Steen and I managed a milestone of sorts. We did the same ride as we did yesterday, but we did it alone. It is 2.5 miles of looping around and between various agricultural fields. It took us exactly 45 minutes. We had one tremendous spook and two small ones (the first two before we… Read more »