Now that I’ve gotten nicely settled into my winter riding routing (going so far as to change my work schedule so I can ride 3 weekday mornings each week), we are leaving for our winter trip to AZ. I went to the barn on Wednesday, but Steen had availed himself of the thaw on Sunday… Read more »
Horse Thoughts
Winter at the Barn
It has definitely taken me a little while to adjust to riding in the winter here. I got very used to my long, leisurely trips out the barn, taking my time with grooming, groundwork, riding and then lounging outside in the green and the sun while Steen grazed. Lately, the temperatures have not been at… Read more »
Holey… Horse?
I have been making it out to the barn more consistently again lately, though not as much as I was managing in the summer. For one thing, the cold hurts a little, and for another, vitzy’s has actually kind of been booming, which is great in many ways, but does cut into my horse time.… Read more »
Fat and Sassy
Well, perhaps not exactly fat, but in the last couple of weeks Steen has definitely been changing shape and I am heartened by this. I wasn’t at the barn for quite a few days because we left town for Thanksgiving. On Sunday the farrier came, so Steen got his feet trimmed and Duke took a… Read more »
Packin’ it On
I have only been making it out the barn every few days lately, partly because I have wanted to let Steen adjust to his new lifestyle without demanding too much of him and partly because I’ve just been busy. Brian and I went out on Friday, and Steen was already starting to look a little… Read more »
Stalled
Yesterday I had another new experience. I walked into the barn and found Steen hanging out in a stall. Since there are more horses that need to be stalled than there are stalls for them at our stable currently, Steen is on a night-out, day-in schedule, using a day-out horse’s stall until Sunday, when that… Read more »
Changing Our Ways
It’s been another few interesting days out at the barn. For one thing, winter is finally setting in. We have had genuinely cold temps and rain, which means the winter pasture is one solid expanse of slushy muck, and Steen is looking more than a little bedraggled. More worrisomely, Steen has also continued to seem… Read more »
Slow Day
Since Brian and I have been riding so much lately, my last extended bareback loping session left my legs pretty sore, and I had to cram a trip to the barn in between many other things yesterday, Steen and I had an easy ride. The weather was more pleasant than it has been the last… Read more »
Fatten Up and Go Faster
As Brian mentioned in the last the last two posts, we’ve been going out to the barn a lot lately. We have been particularly motivated for two reasons. One is that, as I mentioned in previous posts, Steen is apparently not the kind of horse that will get fat on a pasture diet. I knew… Read more »
Progress
In the past eight days I have gone out to the stable to ride on 5 of them. That is a personal record for me. In those five rides I struggled in the outdoor arena through my first lope, had my first solo loping session on Tuesday, refined my lope a little more with the… Read more »