Finally... A Ride

I've been itching to go for a ride. I realized the other day, the last time I was on a horse (besides the five minutes on Zeke riding up to the church for my wedding) was back at the first of May for the Wengert trail ride. I can't believe I havent' been on a horse in more than a month! It was driving me CRAZY!

Luckily the boys were up when I went out to start chores. Rain has been acting a little off. I think it's because we havent' been riding partners this year. So I decided to snag Rain and go for a very short ride. I thought just down the road would be a nice ride for us. Rain and I are both out of shape and we could use some together time. It was also so darn hot I didn't want to tax him too bad since he's so suseptible to weather and heat stroke/heat exhaustion.

I saddled up and we headed down the road. Luckily there was just a tiny breeze to keep the mosquitos at bay. That is, until we turned around. That's when Rain got upset and wanted to run home and the mosquitoes started taking after us. But we kept to a collected trot home. I loved it. Rain would blow air through his nose and he sounded like such an Arabian! :-) Sweet, sweet Rain.

The neighbor to the south of us is putting in a pasture. I thought at one time they had a horse but I haven't seen it since they started building their house. I'm guessing they either boarded the horse somewhere else and want to bring him home or they think having a horse is romantic (insert snicker here) and want to do all the work of getting a horse. I'm curious to see what happens.

When we got back I hosed Rain down. He was completely in a lather but he gets that way coming home if he doesnt' expend some of his energy before hand. Because it was so hot and because of the mosquitoes I didn't want to work him too hard. But I hosed him off and put him in a stall to dry out. I'm not sure if the ride helped Rain or not. But it was so nice to get out and enjoy the weather even if it was stinking hot.

The ponies amazed me yesterday also. I had them out on grass surrounded by electric. fence I'm not sure what happened but they must have gotten into the fence and pulled it down (luckily I didn't actually have the fence plugged in). I guess that's my sign to move them to a new spot on the lawn. I did some pony pasture fencing and tonight they'll have a bigger pasture to roam around in. I'm slowly getting them used to grass again. My biggest fear will be that I dont' pay attention and they founder. But it's a slow progress of grass intake so hopefully I'm doing the right thing. The ponies are much happier these days and much easier to handle!

Joe seems to be in good spirits. He really likes his beet pulp/grain mash. He licks his dish completely clean. I have to leave Thor tied so Joe doesn't get pushed out. But once there isn't much left in Joe's dish I can let Thor go and Thor takes one lick and walks away, leaving Joe to polish off his supper. I may separate them for longer periods at a time so I can keep a closer eye on Joe and get him into the barn for supper feedings. I've learned I cannot feed Joe his grain next to any grass. On Sunday I plopped his grain dish down in grass. Joe takes one bite and slobbers half of it out on the grass (exaclty like what Bob used to do!) That means the grain mash goes everywhere. Well, Joe licks everything up and licked up grass and caused himself to choke. He choked twice Sunday until I realized it was my fault for having the grain dish sitting on the grass. I'd rather I had the dish in the barn so Joe could lick up his grain on concrete (like what Sam does now!) So we'll see. I may start making Joe come into the barn for his supper.

The mosquitoes were so bad I put a flymask on Joe. I need to find a better one. I just grabbed one and the mask rests right on the bridge of his nose where the halter had dug in at one time and now where there is no hair. I'm thinking I'll go dig out one of the arabian fly masks and see if that fits him better. Or I'll go buy one of the longer fly masks that covers the entire nose and see if that helps. Luckily the mask doesn't touch the spot on his cheeck where there's no skin. I think this might have been the first time Joe has ever worn a flymask. He wasn't comfortable with the velcro but he was too busy eating to do much more than spook in place. We'll get Joe pampered yet! He defininately deserves a pampered life after the hard life he's lived.

I'm hoping tonight I can sneak another ride in. But I still need to get the cedar trees planted before they die completely (although I think they may already be dead). It's the thought that counts right?