Saturday, April 7, 2012

Welcome Home

Well we got home about 230am on Friday, so we were too tired to ride. We did get a lot of hair off the horses though. They all came running when we called. Always a great feeling. They all got good report cards from Peggy, even Roscoe.
Today I was suppose to do the Appies feet, but Rebel was really lame. Left front with heat in the fetlock and hoof. He has ring bone in both fronts so he nearly always has some level of lameness. He was not letting us pick up the left at all. We decided to give him a week and reassess. Fingers crossed.
Next we scraped more hair off the horses. Gotta love shed season. Mom also told me to clip Roscoe to start getting ready for the Welsh show. I did not even need a halter to trim his beard and whiskers. His reaction made me a believer in early(as in first week of life) exposure. He first met clippers on about day three. Hopefully showing young will serve the same lesson.
Then we picked the girls to work and turned out the boys. We took Rosemary for her first ride around the big fields. She is such a silly girl. There was a pile of stone or cement dust on the ground and she snorted and bowed away. I walked her up to it so she could check it out. Next thing we knew she took a BITE. Of course it did not taste very good. Many funny faces followed and she was left with a gray muzzle. Then she decided the slight dip in the ground was a pony eating black hole. Brave Dottie came and led the way finding safe ground for Rosemary. On we went into the wild.
Toward the back side of one of the fields, there was a dirt patch. I looked at it and thought "baby up jump." A little raised area was on one side of the dirt. Now Rosemary looked and decided that it was "pony sucking quicksand." She immediately put on the brakes and reversed. Again Dottie came to show her it was safe. She followed and then as Dottie left the spot, she realized she was standing in the "quicksand." OH NO jump to the side. Overall she did well...for a drama queen. We walked by another "quicksand" spot, but I did not push her. Then we went for the long walk around the biggest field. Just past the pond we had to navigate a small but steep hill. Rosemary trusted me to bring her down picking her way through the long grass. She started cruising then at the walk stretching down into the reins. Really great walk. She only got distracted by the people on the other side of the fence and the chickens. I thinks she looked twice at them. I put her behind Dottie for this area so that Dottie would show her the way. Both of them were good girls and we had a great ride. We ended with a trot around the main field. Rosemary opened up and pushed. This time Dottie followed her. The boys came to greet us as we rounded the corner. After a rub down, cookies and sunflower seeds, we turned the girls out and headed to Peggy's.
First up for Comrade was his clip to get ready for the show. Then we tacked up and went to the arena. I was set for a warm up walk then trot. Comrade decided that he would rather canter. I went with it and pushed him on. For the first time ever, he kicked it in when I asked. That push from behind was wonderful. The trot work that followed was better too. He was so willing and good, I let him finish on trail jumping the log jumps. We had some great jumps and one "air" jump because we differed on which way we would go after the jump. I resettled and off we went. We had fun and Comrade has come along.
I should mention that Comrade turned 7 yesterday. Happy Birthday!!!
Tomorrow Peggy and I have to fill out show forms. Hopefully the breeder will show Roscoe in hand for us. Maybe Comrade too.

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