We are getting the younger Pair worked more recently. We have been able to go down the road most days, starting to build fitness. We also think just going straight is helping the gelding quit practicing bad things, like cranking his head to the side for no reason.
Removed his mouth excuses after a visit by the dentist to check everyone. They all did well, only sedated the two youngest AFTER they wore the speculum and had hands in their mouths. They did not care for pulling the float to take off points. This is manual floating, no power tools. They both had points and the 3yr old had a “messy baby mouth” according to the dentist. Lots of floating there. They were good with the sedation and better than previous years! You just can’t practice a lot of floating at home, to get them used to it! Ha ha
The boys and older mares were fine to work on, trimmed off canines, cleaned teeth of buildup. We have very hard water, so maybe minerals add to that. I had practiced backing them into tie stalls, so everyone was good about that to get worked on. Kind of like doing them in a vet chute, they can’t back up, stand for the work nicely. The little mare goes in and turns around, not as much horse as the others to bend. Nothing special found, got them all taken care of so “no excuses for anyone” when asking cooperation thru the bridle.
The young Pair are appearing to enjoy road driving, seeing the sights. They are offended by stinky dead animals in the ditch, tend to veer away, which you have to watch with traffic. Road patches are also things to watch for, one day they walk on it, the next day that same patch gets the evil eye! Does keep us on high alert!! Also interesting what different things they do or don’t react to, that the older horses notice. Trash cans? No big deal, while one older horse thinks ogres hide in them! And he knows HIS training trash can, though the neighbors can is identical!! Husband is enjoying driving them, though his hands are tired after. Compares it to playing a harp, many constant tiny adjustments all the time.
The mare Alyss is a saint, puts up with the goofy, older gelding being silly. He bounces off her at times, scares himself, just steady forward, adaptable in speed of trot, so he has to keep up. Does NOT speed up when he does, only on command. She does notice things, but mostly looks hard at them, keeps going.
Those two are mostly shed off now with the more frequent work. We added some mileage yesterday with gelding still pretty lively at the usual halfway point. He was pretty excited on the new road, new things to see, head way up, but obedient. And he WAS more settled down heading home! Husband said he preferred the mileage over ring time when we got home because the ring is pretty wet. Gelding does seem to do better with work, evidently likes having a job. Having him in the barn days makes it easy to get him out quickly, hitch and go.
Still doing spring farm things done. Warm rain, heat, has things growing very fast. Finally got all the pastures fully mowed ONCE. I had gotten partial mowing in all, but could not get them finished for various reasons. For the moment, pastures all look nice. Still have to trim and then spray fencelines to keep fences hot. Horses are only grazing 2 hours a day, in one hour sessions as we transition off hay, so not getting the grass “shortened” by much yet. Grass is putting the bloom on though, shiny, most winter hair gone. Got all the manes shortened, they look ready to go places, not orphans. Ha ha Bugs are out too, horses are glad to come in out of the bugs after grazing each morning.
Next up is sweeping out the barn storage for hay. Then commit time to cutting and baling hay. Frequent rains keeping the ground wet, some standing water in low places. May make for some odd mowing patterns! We do NOT want get the equipment stuck in the clay dirt. Hay is ready, but not over ripe yet. May be a good hay year locally, if we can get it baled!
