May 17, 2013

A Week of Peace

It's been a good week at KCRC.  I've been going twice a day to care for my mare.  Once I get the slow feeder built it should only be once a day like a lot of the other boarders do.  I will feel better with a slow feeder too since I know she'll have more time devoted to chewing.  I have a couple toys on order as well.  She seems pretty content and I'm sure she'll be more content as other horses move into the stalls next to hers.  She has a decent amount of room even though I wish she was in a paddock at least but Laurie kept her colt Eksodus in the round pen (he was stalled with the others in bad weather) when he was still intact and couldn't be with the mares.  He seemed to be fine but I'm not sure how much exercise she gave him, it may be something to inquire about to make sure I keep my girl happy.  I'm getting out to play with Dani often and to let her run in the arena.  I also let her out in the "common" area as I'll call it when I'm working on her stall.

There is a field just south of Kit Carson that has three horses in it.  A gray gelding seems to have piqued Dani's interested.  She urinated in his direction and proceeded to "wink" at him across the chain link fence.  Oh goodness....  As stalls open those with "seniority" at KCRC have the chance to move to more coveted locations with a bit more room.  I'll hold out for that but I'm also open to seeing if there is field board elsewhere that opens up.  Again, I don't intend on moving for a few months.  I need to just catch my breath, save for a trailer and get some work done with her while I have easy access to these nice facilities.  Once I have a trailer I can trailer her places to work her but I need to get some basic ground work done until I get that "Yes Ma'am" attitude from my fiery equid.

The shelter that Dani has at least provides me time to spend with her even if it's raining.  One day I went out and gave her a nice grooming and worked on her mane/tail.  There is a portion of her mane that is flopping to the other side.  It's on the short side so I drenched it with detangler and tried to train it to lay properly.  It's not really a double mane just a top portion of hair that is misbehaving, otherwise I'd be more than happy to have a mane on both sides!

I rode Dani in the larger arena one day, just at a walk and she was pretty good.  We worked on stops and a little backing.  Consistency will be good I aim to work with her at least 3 times a week if not more.  Some days though I will need to take care of other responsibilities so she won't get a full session but I feel I'm certainly in a better position to do more with her and perhaps purchase a set of lessons!  I'll have to wait until the end of May when I get back from my step-daughters high school graduation to fork over a check but I'm looking forward to getting Laurie out again and doing some work with her.

I'm meeting K on Sunday morning for a trailer loading session.  She'll be teaching me as well as Dani.  I'm excited!  I really like the trailer of GG's and if she does sell it in the next couple months I'll be the first she tells.  She said she'd take payments on it too so I could pay for it over the last part of the year or something like that.  It's good to have that option potentially.  Not sure if I discussed that on here but it's a faded red, 3 horse slant load stock type trailer with a front tack storage room.  Perfect!  Sure it's a little big and heavy for one horse but hopefully in another year or two we will be in a place to get a second horse or donkey.  We might put our house on the market to test it out...then if it sells find horsey rental property and eventually buy some acreage down the road.  Even just a couple acres would make me jump for joy!  Anyhow, the trailer is not one we'd outgrow for a while, two horses and a donkey...it will work just fine.  Of course we are no where near there unless I win the PowerBall tomorrow...

This barn has been quieter, weekends could be a little busier with gymkhana events at 4:30pm each Saturday (open to the public) and other special events that KCRC does but I plan on attending many and volunteering to help out for others.  I also have to say that even though I'm having to readjust my sleeping and waking schedule I'm enjoying the self-care aspect.  When blizzard season returns I may change my tune since a drive up north is different from a walk in a backyard but who knows.  A lot can happen in 6 months.

I will post more about riding, training, or trailering work I will do in the next week!  Happy riding!

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