horsecare

1: Not just cleaning my bridle, but taking it apart and cleaning it. Reminds me of rainy days at summer camp. I love a clean bridle, and I don't do this often enough.
2. Morning feeding. Quiet, birds, munching horses.
3. Raking the barn aisle. Love to see it all tidy. Doesn't happen often enough.
4. Dragging the arena. There's something zen about going around in circles.
5. Mucking stalls. Good exercise. Keeps that middle aged flapping under my upper arm to a minimum.

What are yours?

This morning, we're conquering Belle's fear of needles. She's really ready to get to work, and it's almost time to sit on her. She looks more "horselike" every day and less like a bratty teenager.

Scot and I are in the midst of our bi-annual ritual: Twice a year, during the fourth of july and on New Year's Eve, we spend the evening in the barn feeding the horses hay. That's because, where we live, not only do people have all kinds of fireworks (mostly illegal), but they also really love shooting off their guns. And somehow they think the law of gravity doesn't apply to them. What goes up, stays up.

It was a wonderful weather day for riding, so I got both V and B out for a little stretching. Both horses were totally energetic (even B, after his busy weekend), with the cool breeze blowing and a bit of cloud cover. Right now I'm concerned that my arena is just too darn hard, but I can't figure out how to get a load of sand in there. I'm going to have to figure that out soon, or we'll be having problems.