Five days in a row riding! That's a first! He's going to get a couple of days off though because I have wrenched something in my neck (bathed my parent's dog, cleaned my whole shower, did tons of laundry, etc. I didn't hurt it while doing anything with the horses). I was planning to give him a day off anyway, because he has to be tired. He's not used to all of this exercise. Before riding I hand walked him again so I could see him move and he's fine. He may be a little tender on his front hooves while on the gravel, but I think that's more because he needs a thrush treatment (it's been muddy for weeks or a month) than because of the riding.
I rode him twenty five minutes while their water tank refilled (finally turned the water back on for the first time this year yay!). Yes it takes that long to fill with our well lol. The tank is over 100 gallons. I forget exactly how big it is, but Rocky has been missing his fresh water, so I decided to fill it since we seem to be past the threat of frozen pipes. I rode in the halter again and he was a good boy. This was the calmest ride for both of us. Even when the neighbor horses were galloping up to us at full speed he just stood and stared at them. He didn't look at anything or spook at anything. :D He was being a bit balky and bratty because I let him graze before I rode and all he could think about was green grass. That's my own fault though. It was very mild and easily worked through, even in the halter, so I'm not complaining. This was probably the best ride we've had since getting back to work.
He takes the cutest shadow pictures.
After I had to get off to turn the water off I hand walked him for another ten minutes (we checked the mail and said hi to the neighbor horses), then I fly sprayed him all over (because I found a tick on me yesterday after the ride and then had paranoid phantom itching all day and night... ugh) and put him back in the pasture. That's pretty much all there is to talk about, but you have to see the rest of these pictures!! I started walking backward while hand walking him, so I could take pictures.... just look at them. He had me cracking up!
Me walking backward confused him at first, but he got over it and started making faces. So cute! Then he got distracted by the neighbor horses again and just stared behind me.
On the road, checking the mail, saying hi to the neighbors.
Walking back to the house I rattled the mail and got this cute expression.
He's so much fun. :D So I'm going to hand walk him tomorrow if my neck feels better. More than likely I won't post unless I decide to take cute pictures or something. :) I'm going to try to ride Saturday, but we'll see. Tomorrow and Saturday are short days at work, but Friday and Sunday are going to be looooooong, so I'll just see how I'm feeling. I may just give him off until Monday (I don't know what next week's schedule is yet, so I don't know if I'm working Monday). We can play it by ear. :)
Five days in a row -- hurray! When you ride bareback, do you need a boost from something to get on, or can you get on him from the ground? Sometimes I think that I'd ride more often if I didn't have to fuss with all that tack. I had to remove the horn bag with the first aid supplies from Rock's saddle to lighten it up, because I kept injuring my shoulder and arm lifting the saddle with the bag, even when using a mounting block.
ReplyDeleteOh no I definitely cannot get on from the ground! I use the bumper of my car as my mounting block LOL!! My tack is already in there, so why not right? It definitely simplifies things to not tack up, especially when I'm riding him in the halter. It takes all of two minutes to brush his back clean and jump on. :)
DeleteThis is kind of embarrassing, but I'll admit how I hurt my neck... I had just taken a shower and my heavy, wet hair was wrapped in a towel on my head. I can't tuck it in tight enough for it to not fall off if I tip my head forward because it's so heavy, so I try not to look down when I have my hair wrapped. I was putting on my pants, trying not to look down... and somehow that pulled something in my neck and shoulder... pathetic! I think it was cumulative though from bathing my parent's dog and leaning over the shower to scrub it afterward. To be honest though my hair is just that heavy when it's wet.... :\
He's clearly exhausted after so much work, haha
ReplyDeleteClearly!!!! The little turd had a jail break today! I had just gotten off work and went somewhere to eat because I had an hour to kill before an employee meeting. My mom called me and told me the horses were out in the yard. I FREAKED because there is a bucket of oats out there for the deer. I drove 70mph (on backroads posted at 30 lol) to get home and luckily he hadn't found the oats. He was too engrossed in the grass. It scared me to death!! I called them back into the pasture and shook my grooming bucket. They followed me into the pasture, but Chrome got close enough that he spotted the bucket and realized it was my grooming bucket and not the one I feed them out of (he's too smart)... he turned and bolted back into the yard. The little brat. He's lucky he stood still when I walked up to him with the rope because he would have been in big trouble for running from me. I got them put back up and drove back to town and made it to the meeting with minutes to spare.... he's CLEARLY exhausted haha! ;)
DeleteP.S. I have locked the oats up! The deer can do without LOL!