WW: Always Watching

Max Gets Some Exercise

I apologize for the lack of updates. I really haven't been doing much with Max lately, especially with all the rain. I have several posts started, but no photos to go with them since my computer is trying its hardest to bite the dust.

Saturday, we were having a load of hay delivered in the morning. 226 heavy bales to be exact.  So at 8, I went to put Max and Cinderella out in the pasture so I could get the stalls cleaned and the barn cleared for the hay.  My thought process was "hey, he will love going out on pasture and eating some yummy clover over old hay".  Apparently I was wrong. 

I brought him out, let him loose and he did a 180 right out the gate before I had a chance to put the hotwires back up.  Okay....I go get him, put him in and chase him off enough for me to get the middle line up.  I usually do this so he stays in and I can bring Cinderella in without taking it down. Well, he comes cantering up and tries to duck under the line back out into the yard.  Thankfully he listened when I yelled at him to whoa. So I put up the other two hotwires and hope he doesn't try to run through those. 

Well, he didn't like this.  He took off galloping at a mad pace around the pasture.  I've never seen the fat boy move so fast before.  I watch for a minute to make sure he's not going to try to run through or jump anything, then head back to the barn.  My new thought is that he was upset he didn't get his morning hay. In the barn I could hear him thundering around the pasture.  I ended up putting up a bag of hay in a tree and that seemed to calm him down.  Cinderella went out and I managed to get the barn clean just in time for the hay guy to show up. 

He looked something like this. I wish I had my camera with me.

Quick Updates

Big blog world hugs to everyone who is going through stuff.  I know there are at least two bloggers with horses in a hospital right now. Scarey stuff.

The bugs are horrible at our place right now.  We've been getting a lot of rain, and with the creek and floodplain, there's a lot of standing water which means mosquitoes galore. It's insane. I'm so glad I got those fans this year.  Most of the time, Max doesn't even come out of his stall to greet me like normal.  He's always ready by the gate to come in from pasture in the evenings. I think he just gets sick of the bugs.  I've been slapping him to squish bugs. This is partly to desensitize him for future trail rides. The Brown County trails always seem to have a ton of horse flies and we try to kill as many as possible when they're around the horses. They're nasty buggers. I would rather he stand and let me slap those suckers dead than flip out and buck like I've seen some horses do. I want to work with him, but those mosquitoes scare me away. I won't even go back in our woods right now.

The farrier was out last week and mentioned Max had a broken bar in his hoof. She didn't seem concerned, just wondered how it happened (I have no idea). I don't know that much about hoof conformation and all that, but Google tells me it's not a huge deal. He's not showing any signs it's bothering him. 

Cinderella seems to keep getting better. She's limping quite a bit, but is putting weight on her foot.  She got out the other day and we ended up herding her back to the barn. She was moving too quick for us to walk up to her, but I didn't want to pick up the pace and make her work harder. The vet is coming out next week to take the bandage off and see what's going on with the leg. Hopefully it's healed and she will continue to get strength back.

This was our back yard a couple of weeks ago. The creek is past the wood line.  Normally, you can't see it at all from the house because of how far back it's set. You can just see the edge of the shed to left. The barn is farther up.It's been a lot higher than this, but not for a couple of years.

Filth

I think this is the dirtiest I've ever seen Max. He's not a horse to go roll around in the mud so I was surprised to come home to this. Can you tell how impatient he is to go out to pasture?

We also made some minor improvements to the barn. Each stall now has its own fan. It's helped so much with flies that I don't think Max leaves the stall often during the day.

Pasture Time!

As long as conditions allow, I put Max out in the pasture for a couple of hours each day after work. He loves it. He usually eats the good stuff for a minute, grabs a big mouthful and trots off to his favorite spot in the far corner of the pasture. Occasionally he is full of himself and takes off cantering. It is highly amusing.

Revised Goals: 2015

Due to some medical conditions, I haven't been able to ride much this year.  So far, it's looking like this is going to be status quo for a while.  Between that, the weather, and life in general, I don't know what I will be able to do with Max (or myself) for the rest of this year. There's enough going on that I even stopped taking my weekly lessons.  Due to all of this, I've decided to revise my goals for the rest of the year.

Goals for Max:
-Try to do groundwork when possible with a focus on yielding to pressure.
-Go for walks, especially in the woods once the mosquitoes stop sucking us dry
-Don't let him get too fat

Goals for Me:
-Try to ride a few times, even if it's just walking in the paddock for 10 minutes.
-Continue to update the blog, but maybe step back to twice a week

 Other Goals:
-Continue making trail obstacles if/when the materials should magically appear.
-Survive the year with humans and animals in once piece.

What? You want me to leave all this for some grain?  Okay!

New Obstacle

It just needs some trimming then I'm done. Yay! I can also slip a pole underneath to make it a teeter totter.