This week I’m finally starting to feel caught up with work. We’ve been making a few adjustments to the way we are running my business, including that Brian is now going to handle all billing and invoicing, plus some of the correspondence with potential new clients. This only amounts to a few hours of work… Read more »
leg-yield
Sometimes it is Hard to Tell
I was pretty sure Bear was sore again today. From the beginning he was very stiff laterally, stiffer than I ever remembered him being, and his gaits were not feeling like I’ve come to expect them to feel. Like last time, he wanted to pick up the trot and scoot around on the forehand. So… Read more »
Day by Day and Minute by Minute
We managed to get up quite early and head out to the barn before the heat today. It was a little sticky when we left, but thankfully a breeze picked up and helped dry the day out a little. We were also happy to have none of the last ride’s pasture shenanigans. Of course it… Read more »
Best Yet
By far. Laredo was wonderful today. He walked right up to me in the pasture, and things just got better from there. Working around his head with the flymask and headstall, grooming, and leading were all really great. I suppose the only not so great moments occured with groundwork. We are improving a lot with… Read more »
Some Good Hours
Saturday we got invited on a little trail-riding expedition. We headed out in the morning. It was a group of six horses and riders: 3 paints, 3 quarter-horses. Which is actually kind of funny because the breed selection of at our barn is fairly diverse. Unrepresented breeds include Arab, American Showhorse, Saddlebred, Warmblood, Applaoosa, Thoroughbred… Read more »
Double Double
Today Robin and I both rode two horses. We got to the barn even earlier than yesterday, and we decided to each start with the horse least familiar to us. So Robin rode Laredo, and I rode Steen. I spent the ride thinking about Robin’s last blog post, so I was trying my best to… Read more »
Subtle Makes Supple
One of the reasons we got a third horse was to help us break out of the mental ruts its so easy to fall into when riding the same horse all the time. And I have to say, it’s working like a charm. After my ride on Laredo on Monday, I approached my next ride… Read more »
After Buck, Take II
We built an extra day into our vacation so we could get back home and spend many hours at the barn applying the new stuff we learned at the clinic. There were a few things I was surprised to figure out this time. For instance, I somehow forgot/got lazy about the concept that you should… Read more »
Hackamore Confidence
We went to the barn on Sunday hoping for a quiet ride outdoors in the second pasture, but our plans were foiled. There were still some visitors from Saturday mini-show and they were riding when we arrived. It was a super windy, blustery day. We had hoped the rain was done for a while, but… Read more »
Indoors in the Hackamore x2
We’ve had some weather moving through Iowa, so things have been wet and we’ve been confined to riding indoors. On Friday we found the guys out in the summer pasture, happily grazing on 13 acres of new grass. The herd has seen a lot of turnover this winter, so half of its members had never been out… Read more »