Cantering up the far pasture. Woohoo!! It's good to be a horse.
Today the horses explored the far pasture. The three days, in the snow, that Stuart and I worked on the fence was worth it. I was able to hear, for the first time, the sound of their thundering hooves as they ran with exuberance, not worried about fences. I mean, they could run, and they didn't have to start thinking about turning or stopping three strides into it. Beautiful, graceful, easy cantering. Of course, you know who had the more graceful canter... Although, I must say that with all the freedom to move, and the motivation of keeping up with his friend, Berhwood is moving better and better. In fact, when returning to the stables this evening, he did a smooth, effortless canter up the middle pasture to the arena. Anyway, Berhwood and Giovanna ran the length of the far pasture a couple times, then settled down and ate grass. Had to go bring them in for dinner because they weren't going to come in on their own. I give them a couple days of the routine before they are meeting me at their paddock gates at dusk.
Horse keeping has not been this enjoyable since the first few years Red lived in the pasture behind the Whitmire house. Things here are set up so nicely, and the horses have settled in so well. I guess things just flow here. Okay, the big issue is water freezing and the ground freezing. I've already broken my manure fork on frozen ground. Going to look into getting a metal one. And the hoses were a mess today, because I left some water in them (thought I emptied them, but must have gotten lazy because it didn't seem like it was going to freeze...). Not only that, but the pump outlet next to the stables was frozen up. So I had to string other hoses together to get enough to go from the pump outlet next to the tackroom! Took me half an hour just to get to the point where I could fill the water trough. No, I'm not digging the cold. However, I have never seen my horses this content, this relaxed and just "horsey." So I'll deal with the cold.
While the horses enjoyed their wide open spaces, I brought the girls into the thorn tree paddock. This is a paddock that is between the middle pasture and the far pasture. Someone had cows in there, judging by the patties. There is a shelter, and numerous thorn trees, as I call them. This paddock is not suitable for the horses, due to all the rocks and stumps and holes. However, the fence is safe for dogs, and now that the weather is better, they can come out and explore while I'm working outside. They thought this was a mighty fine idea. The space is about as big as their back yard back in McKinleyville. They ran and sniffed and looked. Happy dogs. Took pictures, but my camera was so cold that they all came out blurry. Next time.
Georgia going down her ramp.
I'm about to dive into my first semester of graduate courses, and I imagine I will get pretty busy. I've been blogging every day, partly to keep busy, but I expect the frequency will drop off to once or twice a week. Feel free to email me, or call, if you want to find out how things are going. I'd love to hear know how things are going in your neck of the woods, too!
Posts
