Just another night at the barn

Not much excitement tonight at the barn. I debated riding Bestie, then decided against it since my legs were a little tired from cross country skiing and playing hockey last night. I gave her a good brushing and that was it. Whenever she's on the cross ties she keeps one eye on Dude, who has been known to give the cross ties a yank when the urge strikes. Tonight he was sleepy after a big day out in the snow.

It's been fairly warm, in the low to mid 30s, so I've been putting Dude and Bestie in their fleece sheets at night and then at turn-out time in the morning Larry or Reggie throw their turnout sheets on over the fleece. Love the fleece sheets, but every night after I groom the horses, I groom the sheets! They pick up everything! But they do wash up really well.

Bestie's sheet prior to brushing it off - I'm surprised there were any shavings in her stall!

Dude and I have a little ride

I didn't have to work this weekend, which was nice since it added a lot of hours to the weekend. I decided to ride Dude. Katie has been very busy and is working this weekend, and the poor guy has been looking kind of down in the dumps watching me tack up Bestie. I had brought his bright turquoise saddle pad because the other one we had at the barn got eaten by mice. Burned me up - it was a gorgeous cream, black and gold Mayatex and the rodents chewed a big hole in it. Once I got him saddled up the girls at the barn made a fuss over him in his pretty saddle pad and you could tell he thought he was hot stuff.

We were out in the arena about 25 minutes. It was pushing 40 degrees today, so fairly warm, and it just felt nice to ride and not be super bundled up. He was pretty peppy, and we did a nice big trot. His saddle is so much less cushy than Bestie's; my rear end was killing me toward the end. We had the arena to ourselves until the end when one other horse and rider came in, and it was a lot of fun to bop around.

A couple days ago Katie discovered a little spot just below Dude's left hip that barn manager Caitlin diagnosed as rain rot. The spot is about the size in diameter of a pencil eraser and slightly raised. I scrubbed it with Betadine (then scrubbed the scrubber) and treated the spot with some ointment - Farnham Tri Care - that we have on hand. Have gotten recommendations to use MTG or icthammol from others, but will stick with what we've got for now. The scrubbing didn't seem to bother him. It's the first time we've ever dealt with rain rot, so we'll see how it goes...

Hello blog! I've missed you!

I certainly wouldn't have guessed that the last time I posted was in mid-December. But, really, no surprise; that's about when the ski season began and therefore, when work got very, very busy. Over the last couple months I've found that when I come home at night, the last thing I want to do is get on a computer. I started the blog to have something fun to write that wasn't connected with work, but work is tiring me out too much to have the energy left at night to write. I'm wondering if anyone else who has a day job involving words has the same problem.

The other unfortunate side effect of being busy at work is having less time at the barn. And winter in Vermont means that everyone migrates to the indoor arena, so it is tough to find time to ride that coincides with when I have an open hour or two and a whole lot of other people are not in the indoor. Pre-holidays I was doing pretty well with lessons, and trainer Caitlin was riding Bestie about once a week, which was working well. Post-holidays I've hardly ridden at all and haven't had the $$ to pay anyone else to ride.

I've pretty much resigned myself to grabbing the horsey time when I can. Last Saturday I rode Dude. I hadn't ridden him in ages, and had forgotten how much direction he needs, as compared to Ms. Sensitive. My legs were t-i-r-e-d after 25 minutes on him. I had ridden Bestie a few days before. There was a jumping lesson going on, and she gets very, um, aware, of all that activity, so we basically just walked the whole time. I lunged her today and she had a few moments of snorting and bucking. The fields have been icy so the horses are really just going out and standing around, and she clearly wanted to seize the opportunity for a good buck-and-run (which was fine after the one other horse and rider left the arena).

Dude and Bestie are both shedding and have been for at least a couple weeks. It seems to be happening quite early this year. I'm hoping it doesn't mean we'll have an early spring. We haven't had much of a winter yet, and I'd be fine with some good snows over the next couple months. I've got new cross country skis that I'm excited to use.

Dude celebrated his 19th birthday in late January. He's been part of the family since he was 8. Where does the time go?!