Back To Work

Where did three months go? Oh, I remember now, to my new hobby...shoveling snow.

When I first decided to give John three months off during the winter I wondered how I would manage to not ride for that long.

Time flies when you are shoveling snow.

John went back to work a couple of days ago - I started longing him because he is very fat. He stood around on the shoveled paths all winter and ate and now we have to slowly work it back off.

Luckily, my parents never paved their driveway. They had a gravel driveway made and then over the years they added sand when necessary. The middle is a nice sandy area - and if no cars are around it is a perfect place to longe a horse.

The first day I longed John he was indignant that I put him back to work. He was fine to the left, but to the right, he reared, spun and tried to drag me. We worked through that, he was good and we were done. I only longed him for 20 minutes.

He had a day off while we got a massive rainstorm and then was back at it on Saturday. Much better this time, even putting his head down while he worked (occassionally) and trotting through mud puddles (he never would have done that last spring!)

This spring I am also going to practice vetting in. I always talked about it last year, but never got it done. Its a priority this year - if he can relax and behave better while vetting in (doing trot lines and circles for the vets at competitive trail rides), I think we can improve our scores simply by not digging ourselves a hole before we have even gotten onto the trail.

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