Saturday, June 6, 2009

Trimming and Prepping for the ISC

Eeegads, what a day! Messing with my truck to get ready for the 7 hour drive to Pagosa for a week at the Parelli Study Center. There's a blown fuse and I played novice auto-mechanic to try and fix it. Guess what, it's still broken. Crud. Inflated all the tires. Paid bills. Cleaned up (not as much as I wanted). And I had to get Gem and Cowboy trimmed - they were overdue. Just growing more and more hoof for me to work on day by day.

I started off the morning by getting the horses back on the track. They've been living in the front pasture for a few days, grazing away. A wet, wet spring has led to an amazingly green and beautiful 35 acres. They're so happy out there, grazing and hanging. And for me, less hay to buy! Everybody wins, at least until the big eaters like Gem start to look pregnant. He's what you call an easy keeper. So, a few days of grazing and he looks like he's ready to foal. Geez.

Eventually, I started to trim Gem. He was looking for the herd and very uncomfortable without them. I took him and ground worked him, thinking to get him with me and cooperative. We had a really nice session! His sideways w/o a fence is coming along nicely. Change of direction is pretty good! Worked on circle game and transitions - up is much better than down. Can you say extrovert?

We went back and tried to get 'er done, and we weren't in much better shape than before the groundwork. So, I got a little more done and then found a place to quit. I left him alone for a while. I was sweaty and tired and I had other things to take care of and stores to hit before they closed.

A few hours later, I came back and started up with Gemini again. For whatever reason, he was a different horse! He let me get my work done with no problem. For the back feet, he couldn't have been better if he tried. Still, I didn't get a great trim on the hinds. I was just so tired and I still needed to get Cowboy done.

Cowboy wasn't as tough as Gemini, but he did offer a little challenge. He doesn't have as many tricks up his sleeve as Gemini, but he's not easy like say, Rain. He had a TON of hoof and I nipped off a full 1/4 inch. I let him go too long. His frog looks great and he's genetically got great feet.

Whoo- I was beat. I won't be doing the 2 geldings on the same day anymore.

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