What a Difference a Year Makes

This has been a bit of a hellish week for me and I have had very little barn time. I normally go every day for at least an hour so not going two days in a row has made it like "all work no play."
Today was suppose to be another lesson with Swayze, who is moving really well, but then our vet's office called to change our appointment to the morning.
So we had to get to the barn early enough to brush the horses and make them some what presentable. By time the vet drove up, we even managed to clean up the barn too. She started with Roscoe. We asked about his weight and size. He is our first yearling and we wanted to make sure we are doing things right. She was really impressed with how he looks, of course she also had to draw all that lovely chrome for his coggins. I empathize since I had to draw it for his registration. Then she really surprised us. A year ago she told us to geld him as soon as possible and that by spring we would probably be asking for him to be gelded. This year she did not even mention Roscoe being gelded. When we mentioned possibly collecting him, she told us a name of a place to do the collection, but mentioned we might want to wait until he is THREE. That is a change from gelding him as soon as possible.
Our vet seems to really like the Cobs. Every time she sees Rosemary she comments on how great she is built. And she asks if we will be breeding her back any time soon. At this time our answer is no, but we do not rule out the possibility in the future.
I love seeing her reaction to all our horses. She has been through a lot with us, Barry's melanomas, Sherman's colic, DaVinci's knee, Winston's carcinoma and Rosemary's sarcoid. And she remembers them all. The best statement she made "Your horses all age well." When eyebrows raise at our horses ages, it makes us feel good. "Old" for us is late twenties, early thirties. DaVinci at almost 24 is still actively working even after his life threatening knee injury.
They all got gold stars for healthy weights, thank you muzzles, and behaved for their blood draws. Next summer we will have to watch Roscoe to see if he will need a muzzle. She thinks hormones may burn a few more calories, so he may get lucky.

Roscoe at 4 months old Oct 2011 and as a Yearling Sept 2012