#2 Horse Adventures....

If you have just found my blog the first installment of this horse adventure that I am undertaking starts below. I will number them to help it make sense.

That is quite a strange look on my face.... I appear to be irritated..... but I don't think I am.

This just happened to be the best picture of my horse that I have at the moment. His name is Tabasco, but Jim has a horse with the same name, so he is due to have his name changed. At the moment we call him "The Gray"... how original is that? If someone out there can come up with a better name I am willing to consider all possibilities.

Today was a big step up for me. For probably the first time ever, I rode off on my own. I have always started with a group, or at least Mike. One time he had a problem with his horse and we got seperated and I rode home alone, but that is about the only time I have done that. So.... today I saddled, bridled and took off. My horse has been lame for more than a month and I needed to see if he was better. If not, I was going to have to start riding Major. Mike's horse is a bit feistier than my horse and I would need to get used to him before the Clinton Anderson clinic. However, the Gray showed no signs of lameness today. I only rode for a little over 30 minutes, as I didn't want to overdue it his first day out in quite awhile. We rode around 3 of our fields, managing quite a lot of trotting and a little bit of a lope. When we headed back to the barn, he wanted to speed up, but I managed to communicate with him that we were going to just take it easy. After a few corrections, he managed to chill out. I felt very good about the whole thing. I tied him up for a bit while I tended to some outside chores, then unsaddled and put him up. I even connected with my horseshoer, so I feel that I have made a few positive steps toward making the clinic a success.

I ran into Jim at the grocery store and told him of my plans. He offered his trailer with the sleeping quarters and his diesel truck, but we'll see... I just may take my old livestock trailer... I guess it depends how cold it will be to haul a horse that weekend. Maybe I ought to take him up on that offer.