This past weekend I went through my 2017 calendar in order to transfer any nuggets that needed to be inserted in the new calendar. I came across a few entries like the two above. For a while I had done a quick synopsis of my rides in the pages of the calendar - maybe for about three weeks. Reading these cracked me up. Such an illustration of the ups and downs of riding. (And that word, "mowed." That little word represents at least an hour, maybe more, of mowing on that day - as part of a weekly or biweekly total of hours and hours of mowing to get all 10 acres at the house taken care of. But I digress.)
Lessons learned in 2017 (some relearned)
You can worry all you want when moving a horse, but if all the ponies look happy at your destination and your gut tells you the people seem like good people, everything will be all right.
Winter ends earlier in Virginia than Vermont. Bestie moved in at Joe London Training Center on February 9, and wore a blanket a few days that week, and then winter was done.
Winter can appear with a vengeance in Virginia, just like Vermont. Witness the current stretch of temperatures from the low 20s into the single digits that started after Christmas 2017.
Winter will appear with a vengeance when you have decided not to blanket your horse. In consultation with the barn folk, I had decided to try not blanketing Bestie. It's a bit of a challenge because the barn gets closed up at night, and the horses warm it up. The few days last winter she had a blanket on, she got sweaty. She has grown an appropriately fuzzy coat, and I am monitoring her during this cold snap.
Clover (actually a fungus on it) will make horses drool. A lot. This was a problem early in the summer when the clover first bloomed, but it became a veritable Ripley's Believe It or Not amount of drool late in the summer. It seemed that Bestie found every single patch of clover left in the field - she was the chief drooler in her gang of mares. Worries about dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Me holding her Himalayan salt brick for her to lick, because if it was left in feed bucket she'd go to town and stock up from the salt. Just a little Horse Mom-ing.
No matter what is going on around them, horses will find something "not to like." See the first entry above about the bathroom construction. A few days later, we had a nice ride and the same exact activity was going on in the construction area. Until she became irritated by sharing the arena with the much speedier Walkers.
The ride following a non-relaxing ride will usually be a good one. Usually.
When a mare has been inside for a day due to extra cold temperatures and is a little irritated by that arrangement, do not walk her down the paddock lane between the two fields of geldings. If I read the situation right, there were some "hey baby" messages followed by a lot of "get the f--- away from me" responses, and my hand muscles clenching the lead rope paid the price.
When your farrier tells you that something feels tight on your horse, listen. In this case, it was Bestie's left hind, and a couple rounds of massage and Reiki fixed her right up.
When it's super cold and you fill your horse's bucket with lukewarm water and they drink it right up, then blow happily and return to their hay, you'll feel good too.
When you're riding in the outdoor ring and your horse goes bananas, don't doubt there's something there. Yep, to her eyes - mountain lions. To my eyes - minutes later - two barely visible horses tucked into the shrubbery. We went in the indoor and had a nice ride in there.
Love you, Bestie Best. Looking forward to what 2018 brings.
