Happy dance here, we are getting in driving time! We got out 5 days last week, yesterday and maybe Saturday. Just mostly walking, but it is a start to conditioning. We are logging time driving and distances on the ADS sheets for tracking both pairs. I have always logged on a calendar before, but thought to try theses sheets instead. Not sure I will mail them in, but will be interesting to see what our totals are. They are getting about 3 1/2 miles now, each outing. One horse is in both Pairs, so he has about 19 walking miles, while his two partners only have about 9 miles each. The time/distance tracking program is open to all ADS members for year end winners, pictures in the Whip magazine. We could see you there!
Horses here are shedding heavily, hair on us, carriage, barn floor. Hope the birds will use it for nests. I like spotting hair nests in Fall when the leaves come off. Last week was great, sunny and warm. This week is mixed, usually with a cold wind blowing too. Husband is doing quite a bit of round penning, reasserting that people are in charge with the younger horses. They are agreeing with him, sessions are getting shorter.
The horse with the cut side is so happy to get out and run in the roundpen, is much easier to deal with now that he can get exercised daily. He just was no fun pretending to be a 1400 pound kite!! Probably another 10 days of stall as wound fills in better. I want to be sure everything will hold together when he bucks and rolls outside.
Check over harness, may need loosening on unfit animals when starting again. Look for cracked leather or strapping on rein billets, saddle billets to girth, breeching straps. Check vehicles overy befor hotching. Check tire pressure if you have air filled tires instead of hard rubber tires.
Trim your bridle path if he has lots of mane. Extra hair will affect bridle fit, maybe make it too tight at the bit, cause bridle to slip off if he shakes his head. Check anything else you can think of before hitching, just to be safe.
