Going to Work

We don't have enough of a barn to make it a full time job, but it keeps us busy enough.

Mainly Carrie. She's the only one in the family who really knows how to ride!

She pops on Magic once a week to exercise him for Ellie.

She works with Eddie to keep him in shape for Heidi.

Heidi's knee prevents her from riding, so her visits have just been to check on her boy, hang out, and have fun rather than exercise herself.

Micayla, Abby's owner, has been showing up every day. Her medical school doesn't start for a while yet, and if you bring a horse you may as well work with the horse! Carrie's joins her on occasion.

Same managed to tweak himself again, so I don't have recent pictures with him. He trots around fine, but Carrie says there's a lack of impulsion when she pushes him to canter. She added a new supplement to his feed and he is NOT a fan.

This is the horse equivalent to choking it down. The big baby knocked his food bowl over twice before we switched him to the bucket.

Not that it stopped him from finishing.

Sam cleaned the bucket and hated every minute of it! He's truly stomach-driven.

Sam's on a week of rest. Alex, Laura, and Carrie all ride him from time to time, so he'll probably enjoy the break.

Huck has adapted really well. He really likes to place bitey-face and has proven dominant over Eddie and Ernie. He doesn't leave Magic be either, but Magic puts him into his place when he's had enough.

Huck's super friendly with people. He's got a great personality. Whoever owns him one day will love the little guy (and that's me saying this...).

He's shown an amazing amount of trust and willingness to work. He came along further than Pippin in just a few sessions. "He's a blank slate," Carrie said.

Carrie was shocked when she put the saddle on him and he acted like it was no big thing. He went up banks and jumped over ditches the first day she introduced them!

She was so excited she had me film the second day she took him out to the obstacles. If he wasn't tiny, Carrie would probably want to keep him!

Huck's owner stopped by to check in on him one day while Carrie was out. She plans on coming by for a training session eventually.

There's all the usual chores and horse care mixed in. It could be something as simple as braiding Maddy's mane....

...or fixing a fly mask! How do they do these things?

Pippin's a character. She farts and laughs.

Really, it was a yawn. Just like the shot where I caught Maddy.

It looks like they're making noise, but the yawns were silent.

We try to do most of the work in the mornings before it gets too hot. We end up sweaty messes regardless. There's no rush, so I work at a more leisurely pace. Some of it's still pretty tough: I weighed the bucket of Sam's poop the other day and it was 72 lbs! It was also the first bucket. If I take a day off he starts to stack his piles....

Auction Rescue Special: Huckleberry

Our newest boarder arrived Wednesday afternoon.

A chain of observers came to see what the trailer brought forth.

It was a quick unload. Rain was working itself up into a storm.

Huck was a good boy and came off quickly.

He's a four-year old auction rescue. As Carrie calls it, "He's a blank slate." Someone had him, put a halter on him a couple of times to lead him around, and then forgot about him.

A local woman who runs a rescue operation picked Huck up at an auction to prevent him from going to a meat market. She knew Carrie through Ellie and an impromptu trailer rescue and asked what training board would cost.

Huck is our 8th horse on property. We are FULL!

Carrie brought Ernie in to be the babysitter. He's calm and has a history of looking out for other horses.

Once they had a chance to smell each other and Huck settled, Carrie stalled Magic and Eddy. She let Huck and Ernie into the field and then introduced the others one by one.

There was huffing and squealing. 

Huck looks to be a mouthy git. Ideally, we would have let the boys hang out in the barn longer, but there was only so much daylight left for Huck to learn the field boundaries.

It went well enough the boys all went for rolls in the field together!

The ladies watched the mayhem from afar. Sam looked like he wanted to get out and run with the boys, but he was stuck in his pasture-lite. Huck ran over to introduce himself in the same hyper, mouthy manner he did with the other boys.

Odd as it sounds, Carrie and I were rooting for Huck to get shocked. He kept straying closer and closer to the wire....

"Wait...he touched it. Is the fence on!? Mike! Go check!"

The fence was OFF! Who knows for how long? Sam knew to be wary and refused to risk a shock, but Huck had never seen our fence before. We needed him to figure out it was a barrier so that he didn't run through any lines and into trouble!

I never saw him get shocked, but we haven't had any incidents of note. Huck is a high-energy guy and likes to push other horses boundaries. He's a lot like a teenager. There was a mark on his side from where he pushed Magic too far and got put in his place, but that was good news. "He needs to learn manners and to respect other horses boundaries," Carrie said.

So Carrie has a new project. Horses are the gift that keep on giving (work!).