Horse Update,May

 It has been a tremendous month since my last horsey update.  Lots and lots of things happening, all of which have been good things!

Barn-wise:

We finished the electrical on the west side of the barn.  This means I have outlets on each end of the aisle, and lights in the stalls which are operated by switches (rather than plugging and unplugging an extension cord run from one light, through the rafters and over to the--formerly only--outlet by the electric panel).  There's still the electrical on the east side of the barn to complete but that is put on hold until we get the walls (and ceiling) built for the tack room as that wall between the tack room and the aisle needs to hold a lot of the wiring.  Hopefully that will appear in a horse update post before winter comes again. Fingers crossed; summer is a really busy time keeping up with growing things.

The Poetess: 

We are riding!!  So far only on days that DH is working from home, and only within the (very spacious) confines of the greater perimeter pasture fence, but I'm in the saddle on my  OTTB mare!  The very unflattering photo shown below is from our first ride (note to self; DH not only needs to learn how to effectively be a handler/spotter for me getting on greenies, but he also needs a course in horse photography).  I'm not sure who was more nervous for that first ride, me or DH who was right there in case of trouble.

All rides since that first one have been solo, with DH in the house rather than in the 'pasture arena' with me.  The Poetess has been great; very attentive, very eager to figure out the new things I'm asking her--like stand still while being mounted and dismounted, steering with legs and seat, going in a circle when asked rather than long straight line (or giant oval).  We have not gone faster than a walk yet, because I want to cement that listening to seat thing as well as a good whoa and stand still before I see what happens after I ask for higher gears.  Honestly, we've only had 6 total rides, the longest of which has been 20 minutes (we always longe first to check where her brain is and what she's feeling like), so I don't think we're going horribly slow.  There's been so much new and unfamiliar riding I've been asking her to do (halt?  Why would anyone ever want to do that?? Seems to be her most common question to me).  Plus we've been practicing walking away from where the LBM is in turnout and then walking back to that fence without 1) being reluctant to leave the safety of a group and 2) rushing when heading back towards another horse (which so far hasn't been an issue).  I'm not quite sure what her response will be if the LBM starts running in the pasture, as one of Poetess's favorite turnout games is to race the LBM. (Spoiler, Poetess wins every race.)  Very likely I'll find out the answer to that soon.  Weather and DH's job location permitting, we'll be trying out a trot later this week on our next ride.

a between-the-ears photo from our 4th ride

The Little Black Mare (LBM):

This horse is awesome!  In the saddle, that is.  On the ground she still often forgets about personal space and how to stand still while being saddled.  As evident by the bruising she left on about half my foot in late April.

ouch

But under saddle, I really love her.  She's always eager for a ride outside the gate and still hasn't balked at anything I've asked her to do.  

Go through knee-deep water for about 20 feet in the flooded out spot on the way to the woods?  Okay.

Go in the woods (even though we've only hand-walked a small corner of the woods once)?  Okay.

Walk the ENTIRE path through the three sides of the woods?  Okay.  (This is alone, no other horses with us, and too many trees to be able to see back to the safety of her buddy in the pasture.)

Go through a spot in the woods that very strongly smelled like dead critter and could very possibly have a horse-eating monster lying in wait for the LBM?  Okay.

Trot circles in the 'outdoor arena' even though it had grown up to almost mid-cannon height and was full of dandelions in bloom?  Okay.

nice yellow sock you got there, LBM

So, horse training and farm life have been great lately.  I am having to learn how to maintain turf arenas, which I've never encountered before.  We're nowhere ready to rip the topsoil off what is designated as the outdoor arena and work on drainage, base layer and sand for the top, so this year it's going to be a grass arena.  Ditto the work area behind the barn in the greater pasture will remain grass because once I have a sand outdoor arena (with a fence around it as a visual deterrent for any horse that might unexpectedly feel the need to run for the hills as it were) the work area behind the barn will be pasture again.  Looks like until the Spring flush of growth is over, I'll be brush-hogging both those spots on a weekly basis to keep it short enough the horses aren't either trying to eat it while in a walk on the longe or getting their feet a bit tangled up in it and stumbling when trotting with a rider.