Random Ramblings – Vol. 2

So, not much to post about right now. Still snowy, but there is some hope. The temps are slowly rising and snow is melting. In fact, our road is nice and clear. I took Spencer out for two hand walks this week – covering about 4kms each time! We met a few neighbours, who were surprised to see me walking a horse. I said that I don’t have a dog, so why not walk this guy instead? ;-)

Spencer is still on track to go down to the barn this week – I just have to finalize transportation issues. I was going to handwalk him down, but I’m a bit nervous. The road to their place is hilly and cars drive fairly fast. There are also at least 2 farms with horses, so I’m not sure how he is going to react. I’m sure he would be fine, but I think for our first outing, I’ll go with the trailer!

I met with my new coach and some others from the barn last week. I was fun to start planning lessons and hearing about everyone’s show plans. My new coach – I’m just going to call her Coach from now on – was grilling me on my plans and expectations. I had her try to guess the last time I had been at a show. She said 10 years? Nope. 5 years? Nope. 2 years? At this point I was laughing very hard. The last time I was in a show ring was 24 years ago!! She almost fell off her chair when I told her. LOL

I look a bit younger than I am, so that always throws everyone off at first. I also told Coach that I expect her to be honest with me – I don’t want to hear that I’m doing great, when it reality there is no way I should be near a show ring. She promised she would be honest. She also told me she likes a challenge, so I’m guessing I’ll make it to a show one way or another! 

I was able to take Spencer’s blanket off two weeks ago when the temps were staying consistently above -10C (14F) , which was great. I hate horse blankets!!! He was sweaty under his mane one evening, so I decided to just ditch the blanket. His coat has fluffed back up nicely and he seems to be coping just fine without the blanket. That convinces me to try not blanketing him at all next winter!

He is also starting to shed! As messy as it is, it is the best sign of spring I’ve seen so far. He dislikes being groomed, so that may prove to be an issue when we are riding more, but he’ll just have to deal with it.

Another reason that I’m looking forward to having him away for 6 weeks or so is that it will give me time to clean up his paddock and make some repairs to my fence. I’ll need everything to be nice and solid once the grass starts growing – as he likes to lean on the fence. I have to add a few posts on the western side of the small paddock, as the wire is really sagging, not to mention being almost buried in snow! Then I can double check the connections and make sure there is a nice voltage in the fence…

That about covers things around here!