Brian and I headed out to the barn today with the intention of riding outside. But it was honestly kind of horrible out. Granted, it wasn’t raining. But it was chilly and windy. We walked to the pasture, Steen saw me and he literally came running for the gate. I brought him in to find he’d visibly lost weight in the 48 hours since I’d seen him and he was upset about it.
At least it is touching to know he considers me the solution when he feels bad.
So, I gave Steen a big snack and scrubbed all the mud out of his coat. By the time we had both horses clean and tacked, Steen and calmed down considerably and the indoor arena was empty and inviting. We decided to stay indoors. I hopped on bareback and Brain climbed on Bear.
We started off getting used to the tractor that now lives in one corner of the arena. Steen can sometimes take a ridiculously long time to get used to things. But after roughly a million laps, he wasn’t snorting and shying at it any more. At that point I asked him to trot, and as has happened lately he was more relaxed and focused at the jog than at the walk. We continued with loops and figure eights for a while. Steen was also stopping great today (for no reason I can decipher) and willing to stand and back like a champ.
Bear was having some issues with his right turns, so I spent a while watching Brian ride and giving him my opinion. Then I decided to have a little bareback lope on Steen, since I haven’t done that in a long time. To the left things went great. Steen felt smooth and balanced, if a little inclined to lean on me. To the right things were rather more erratic, but not bad. At any rate, it was invigorating.
We hopped off and Brian explored Bear’s back, finding a knot in a muscle there. He treated Bear to some massage. Hopefully with a bit more TLC the tightness will pass.
I put Steen’s blanket back on (again), as it is supposed to be in the 30’s and rainy tonight. I have to say I’m pretty sick of “spring” and am ready for summer already.
Horseback Hours YTD: 15:45
@Tammy: Yeah, I was using the term "spring" rather loosely. 🙂
@Erica: Heh. Bear is more like Tranikla. The worse he did was give the tractor a few sidelong glances.
"after roughly a million laps, he wasn't snorting and shying at it any more"
Ha, so true. Trekker is just like this. Just because it hasn't done anything scary the last 999,999 times, doesn't mean it'll be safe *this* time. Tranikla just doesn't like to waste the energy. 🙂
What?? You call this spring?? LOL! I call it the never-ending winter… Although much milder than last year it just goes on and on and on… The horses are sick of the mud, can't let them out in the pasture because we haven't had enough sun to get the grass growing. I will let them out in the north yard tomorrow… if its dry.