Looking Up?

Thanks to a very good friend, I went on a very much needed trail ride. I'd thought about bailing because I was so stressed over getting everything done. But she convinced me that I should go riding instead. Thank you Stacy A. for hauling my lazy butt around and convincing me to go. I am rejuvenated (albeit a little sore). :-) I should have taken Chaos but I took Zeke instead as Chaos is still in Madison. I'll be hauling him and the other three naughty horses home this Sunday.



While on the trail ride, I noticed an oddity. On most rides, people ride geldings. This time around, the majority of the horses were mares, and there were many riders on this trail ride. I'm not sure if it was due to most mares being out of season or what. I guess some people figure they might as well ride their newly bred mares and others just prefer to ride mares. But even if some were bred, they were broke to ride. I'm not really thrilled with bred mares because it means more horses born into this world, but each mare on that trail ride goes to show that you don't have to JUST have a broodmare. Mares can ALSO be used as riding horses. So hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel and people will be more willing to TRAIN their mares instead of selling them at auction when they can no longer produce babies or decide they no longer want to make babies. There is hope.

While I was playing, Mike, Mom, and Dad were busy working on the place fixing things the horses smashed this spring/summer. It's amazing how much a horse can ruin if you don't keep up with it. They broke the door frame going into the barn this spring and also damaged the door. Along with that, they broke the corner of the leanto off the barn. Mike, Mom, and Dad worked like crazy to get everything fixed and now it looks and works beautifully. I owe them so much.


After a long but very fun trail ride, I had work to do. I got to work doing normal chores but figured I'd better get the herd at the neighbor's home. The pasture is gone over there and the horses needed to come home. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I can haul some of the horse back over, if the grass comes back (keeping my fingers crossed). I first loaded up Sam and Rain. When I got back for Dude, Ivan, and Brego it was dark. Luckily the moon was out but it was still dark. I hate loading horses in the dark. Silly me didn't tie Ivan up right and he escaped while I was preoccupied with Dude's temper tantrum. Luckily Ivan let Mike catch him (after a little bit) and we loaded Ivan and Brego quickly before Dude started doing somersaults in the trailer. I'm not exactly sure what Dude's problem was last night. Some days it's hard to tell what his problem is, other than he's naughty. It's such a shame that he has "hunter's bump" and cannot be ridden. He would have made a perfect ranch horse.

We got everyone settled and then had to push a round bale in to the blind pen. The blind horses managed to mangle a fence line and I'll be working on that tonight. But with the big herd home, I wanted to distract the blind herd to make sure they stayed away from the mangled fence. Hopefully no one decides they want to join the big herd. there's always some type of fencing to do. Does anyone have a cheap or discounted bale feeder they would like to sell?

Tonight is drill practice so there won't be much time for anything but chores. The days are getting so much shorter. It's now dark by 8pm and I simply can't get everything done. I have a two column page and a half "Honey Do" list that I can't seem to get very far on. Although I am inspired. After seeing the progress Mike, Dad, and Mom made on the place, I am rejuvenated and ready to get cracking on yet another big project! Lets get these projects done before the first snowfall! eep...snow!