Wonderful Weekend

There is no better way to spend a weekend than surrounded by horses and horse stuff. This weekend was absolutely fantastic. I always enjoy the Horse Fair and look forward to a new season of horses and riding. The Horse Fair is usually my official start to the riding season.

Since Sunday was so nice, I decided to forgo the Horse Fair and play with the horses instead. Oh what fun that was! The weather progressively got better as the day went by making it even more fun.

When I went out to do chores in the morning I decided that the mares needed a good grooming. I also did a bit of grooming on Sam and Tommy.

Later in the day I caught Rain and saddled him up English. I figure if I start Rain out english than I won't want to rush either of us. I want to work him back into shape nice and slow. I hadn't been on Rain in almost six months so a little riding around on english for about 10 minutes is all we did.

After a short breather (because I'm so out of shape), I caught King and rode him around. This is the first time in more than six months that I'd ridden King. He seemed a bit soar so I'm back to graining him with his medicine. I need to discuss King's prognosis again with the vet to see what other options we have. I don't think the medicine is really working to fix his soar muscles. I'm also going to have the farrier look at his feet and tell me what size to buy for boots. I've decided to not shoe him this year but to buy those shoe boots instead. I know they are pricey but if I can ride him a couple of times, it'll cover the cost of shoeing. And if he goes lame again this year, I won't have wasted my time with shoes. But I do need to discuss it with the farrier to see what he thinks too. Maybe we do need to leave shoes on but leaving shoes on makes his feet get long. Pulling shoes lets his feet stay short but since he's so flat footed he gets sore. It's so hard to know what to do.

After King, I pulled Maverick out. I wasn't brave enough to ride him but I did saddle him up and do some ground work (round pen) work. Of course within about 10 minutes Maverick had my number and we didn't get anything more done. He's too smart for me. I know I should have gotten on him and ridden but I didn't. Maybe later this week I'll get my nerves back.

Then it was Chaos's turn. I saddled him up and we plugged along around the yard. Again, Chaos hasn't been ridden in about six months and he did extremely well. I wouldn't put him on a trail ride just yet but he did better than I expected. In fact, out of the three that I rode, Chaos did the best. Go figure!

I finally caught Jim, which is a feat all in itself. I decided that I wouldn't ride him but I wanted to see how he would handle a saddle. The previous owner suggested that you always lounge him before getting on. He'd never bucked for them but had bucked for her sister/previous owner. I wasnt' really in the mood to get bucked off and it was starting to get late. I still havent' figured out a bridle set up yet for Jim either. So instead, I saddled Jim up and we walked around the yard. I wanted to see how he would react to everything. He did pretty well and took everything in without spooking at all. I think he'll be a good horse under saddle once we get a few rides under our belt.

I'd wanted to ride Zeke but it was either ride Zeke and do chores in the dark or just mess with Zeke for a few minutes and do chores in the light. Since I'd been doing chores in the dark all week I opted to simply mess with Zeke and start in on the chores. That and I had left the new swayback saddle pad in the house and was too lazy to go find it. So instead, I just groomed Zeke down and let him enjoy some down time away from the rest of the herd.

I did leave Sam's blanket off last night. I think I might leave it off again tonight too. It's so nice out that I don't want him to get too hot. I might put it back on for the nights the rest of the week though. We're going back down into the 40s for highs and 20s for lows.

I'm hoping the weather will warm up soon. I need to move the mares out of their winter pasture into the pen. I will end up losing my small riding pen but I dont' want the mares out on pasture when the new fresh grass starts popping through.

I also need to do some serious fencing in the winter pasture. Luckily I feed the horses twice a day so I can check on them. I know some people said I should just feed them once so I can enjoy the horse fair a little bit more but I'm not willing to risk it. It's a good thing I listened to my own concious. Babe had some how managed to get under my temporary fence into a section of the pasture I need her to stay out of. I need to do a better fencing job to ensure she doesn't go back in there again. I'm hoping later this week to get that fencing done.