This morning was my "reward" for helping prepare for the party this weekend, so I got up at 8am, woke up Harlan, and went straight out to play with the horses!
I started with Rocky, my 12 yo 17hh DWB/TB gelding. I lunged him last night and the mysterious lameness appeared gone going to the left, and barely there to the right, so I'm not sure what is going on with him, but a little walk couldn't hurt. We started off in the new ring, much to Rocky's chagrin - he really didn't want to be that far away from the herd (can't wait to solve that with the barn next week!!!!). But we did a lot of serpentines, trotted the length of the ring a few times, and then walked out in the pasture for a bit. We've gotta get back into shape. He was great and such a sweet horse.
Next, I rode Sweetie! My 21yo OTTB mare, and she was great! We trotted around in the yard (the horses were too far from the ring to make that work this morning). We did lots of serpentines to keep her attention, and trotted on and off for about 10-15 minutes. Gotta get her in shape, too! But the best part is - I think I'm finally in better shape than my horses so I can outlast them! Now that is something! Well, Sweetie is the eternal TB, so I know she could outlast me for real, but her "quarter was up" before I was ready to quit today. So we did just enough to help get her back into condition and then quit. She was great.
I was going to be done for the morning, but as I let Sweetie go, there was my foster horse, Kiley, watching attentively, looking at me with eyes that said, "is it my turn now?" That's pretty hard to believe coming from Kiley! When she first got here she wouldn't even look at me! So I went back into the garage to get an appropriate sized halter (Kiley is only about 14hh, so the big TB halter would have hung around her nose, I'm sure.)
I got back out and she was waiting for me at the gate still, watching attentively! She was happy to get a few treats, and stood still while I put the halter on, and followed me into the yard. The neat thing is that Kiley was not at all herd-bound. The rest of the herd was out of sight, and she never looked for them or nickered once. She was completely attentive to what I was doing. I groomed her with a gentle curry and picked all four feet - again being deliberate, but gentle, and she gave me her feet easily and without being panicky about it. We did some Ttouches and then I grabbed the saddle pad that I had just used on Rocky and Sweetie. I let her sniff it, and then rubbed it on her neck and put it on her back. Not time to put a saddle on quite yet, but she did really well with the saddle pad! She paid attention, but had no problem with me putting it on her back. So that's a beginning. I thought about what else I could do, but decided the best thing would be to do nothing - and spend some undemanding time with her, since this was the first time she has "asked" to be worked with. We grazed in the yard for 5-10 minutes and then I let her go. And the good news is that I didn't overwhelm her with anything - when I took the halter off, she stood there rather than walking away immediately, and I gave her some more of her favorite treats.
It was a great morning!
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