Random ramblings

I always think that I don’t have much to write about these days, since I’m not doing much horse stuff...Once I sit down and start typing though, lots of random stuff comes out!  Maybe I’ll try and do a “random ramblings” kind of post every week or something... 

His move looked like this! Luckily I was far away... 

Spencer hasn’t really travelled too far in his paddock with all of the deep snow we have had. He has a few trails packed down around the barn and to his shelter. I figured he wasn’t comfortable walking around in the snow much because it is all hard now and while I can walk on the top of it, he sinks down every other step. 

 I went out to feed on Monday and when I went out back door to see how he was doing, he gave me this wild eyed look and took off galloping around his pasture!   I guess the snow wasn’t too deep/hard/crunchy for him after all!  At one point, he even jumped the manure pile and then did some sort of Spanish riding school moves.  He jumped straight up in the air and then kicked out with his back feet.  I wish I had my camera with me!   It took him 10 or 15 minutes to calm down and he came back to the barn all sweaty and with his head down.   What a guy. I had to walk him for a while to cool him out before I could feed him.

While I was searching for images similar to the move Spencer “performed”, I found this cool post about in-hand dressage with a miniature horse:  http://equineink.com/2008/06/18/good-dressage-comes-in-a-small-package/

His name is Lancelot and he is so handsome!  He has some videos on YouTube and his owner has a book about training minis...

Since I can’t do much outdoors with Spencer right now, I thought I would practice clipping him.  I saw the previous owner clip him and he was fine, but to be honest, I was expecting a bit of attitude when I tried it.  I got out the clippers and he didn’t even flinch.  I was expecting to have to do a few sessions of desensitizing him and calming myself, but I had his bridle path trimmed in about 5 minutes and he would have let me trim his muzzle too, but I didn’t bother.   So, I’ll need to think of something else to work on.  Maybe I should try pulling his mane and practice braiding or something...???

Oh – I just remembered something horsey that I did a couple of weeks ago. I went with a friend to visit her young horse that is in training.  This barn is into cutting and sorting, so we went to watch an afternoon lesson. The trainer then took my friend’s young horse into the arena afterwards, to get him used to the cows.  It looked really fun actually...it would be neat to try that sometime. Maybe one winter I’ll board for a couple of months and do something like that with Spencer!

moooo

The young paint isn't too sure he likes the cows...

Ok - enough rambling for today. More to come next week. I like my rambling posts!