Happenings

I'm afraid I'm not that exciting. But here's the happenings around the barn:

*Colton - I love how fast this guy learns! Before I left we were just starting to lunge outside the round pen. Since I never have helpers, I use the round pen to help teach them how to lunge and gradually do more and more outside. We hadn't done very much work at all though. Today however, he gave me some perfect walk and trot on a nice round circle without pulling on me. Still some sideways "OMG!" moments, but for the most part he was a champ. I've been on him a few times since I got back, mostly just re-acclimating him to having someone on his back so we didn't really do more than walk and trot around the pasture but I'm looking forward to getting him back in the arena!

*Jetta - I haven't ridden. I've been wanting to, but when I went to go pull her out of the pasture and tack up, her right hind leg is swollen. Oh pony. It looks like it got tangled in some blackberry vines and that's the reason it's swollen, she has small cuts all the way around. Grady and I went on a patrol just to make sure there wasn't any wire hanging around, but we didn't find any. She's not lame but I don't want to push it by riding her. Other than that she's her normal sassy self. We've been doing ground work and just lunging prior to her swollen leg to establish that I'm still the alpha since she has become the dominant herd horse in my absence. Her hooves are doing very nicely, the thrush is gone for the most part and her quarter cracks might just be closing up, knock on wood.

So fat! She looks like a broodmare! So unusual for her...

*Grady - My wonderful old man is still wonderful. I've been riding him around the pasture just for fun and I love it. Just today I was playing around, doing rollbacks on the fence and at one point he was doing them by himself! He'd canter out of one rollback, I'd adjust my weight to ask for a halt, he'd slam on the brakes and spin around then canter off in the opposite direction. I love this horse. I hope that someday Jetta and I build the same rapport as Grady and I have. His hooves are looking wonderful. Last year I was bad and neglected having the farrier out as often as he needed so his hooves shifted forward and they're finally going back to normal and I'm very diligently trying to get rid of the thrush that he has always had. He has such tiny halter horse hooves compared to Jetta.

I can't believe that it's already almost fall. The apples and blackberries are ripe which is one of my favorite times of year. One blackberry for me, one for the horse, and maybe one for the bucket :) I'm going to bake a blackberry pie tonight. It cracks me up to see Jetta with her muzzle all purple. She picks the blackberries herself. Colton is not quite sure if he likes blackberries yet and Grady doesn't. The apples though... Grady takes very delicate bites - you have to hold the apple steady for him because he'll bite it in half and then bite the remaining part in half again. Very cute. Colton eats the apples whole (they're pretty small) and then there's Jetta. She tries to eat them whole but they're too big for her so she has to spit it out and then bite it in half. Dork.