It was not the most enticing weather today: bright but hazy, with crazy winds. But it was at least warm, and when we got to the barn we got to meet the new baby that arrived during the night. The mare, Jackie, has been unbelievably big for weeks. She seems a lot happier with her… Read more »
second strip
A Ride in Thirds
I forgot to mention last post that Steen kicked himself during our unplanned gallop and split open his heel. It was bleeding a lot when we got back to the barn, and I hosed it off and packed it with Neosporin. The bleeding stopped quickly after that and I wasn’t too worried about. Still, I… Read more »
Spring Fever?
Today we got back to town from a trip to Chicago. We were exhausted, as the trip involved the arrival of our new niece and a lot of quality time with our 2-year-old nephew. But we rallied and got to the barn, and decided to ride Steen and Bear to keep things easy. We started… Read more »
Easing out of 2012
It’s time for the obligatory end-of-the-year retrospective post (in which I will reflect on the year in general and provide copious numbers of back-links to previous posts). I’m less than an hour away from hitting my “time in the saddle” goal for 2012, and we still have two weeks of the year left. I think… Read more »
Getting Back in the Swing of Things
It has been a tough few weeks with the horses. Steen’s leg is slow to heal, Laredo has been troubled by a sore shoulder, and we’ve had some less than ideal weather. But today we finally had a day that felt like normal. Laredo is getting better, so Robin was able to ride him. We… Read more »
First Laredo Lope
Last Monday I went out to the barn telling myself I would lope Laredo. We’ve been a bit slow to get there because we usually ride in such irregular, open spaces. For so long he had such a tendency to lock up on the bit and lean into pressure it didn’t seem there was anything… Read more »
Like Magic
After way too long a break to suit my preference, I finally made it back to the barn today. I was in a bit of quandary deciding what horse to ride. Brian was going to ride Bear, so that left me with my pick of the other two. At first I was leaning towards Steen… Read more »
Back to Second Guessing
After a week off due to heat and busy work days, we got back to the barn. I was disappointed to find that Bear was still not feeling the greatest. He was inclined to really park out during grooming and tacking, and when I hopped on he felt stiff and distracted. He also continued to… Read more »
2nd Anniversary
Two years ago today I got Bear. He was a somewhat dumpy and out of shape horse. At 15, he also seemed quite old. He was still a great horse for me, but at the time we didn’t know if we would keep him much more than a year. How wrong we were. Within a… Read more »
Strange Sunday
On Sunday the horses got their feet trimmed, which was good because Steen has a bit of a tendency to over-reach and kick himself on the inside of his right front foot when his feet get a bit long. He does this mostly at the lope, but we’ve been working on the lope a lot… Read more »