I got back late Saturday night from my trip back to Minnesota/Wisconsin. I went to the barn on Sunday in the early afternoon. Junior seemed glad to see me and met me at his stall door and I went in and scratched him all over. I think after 10 months I finally found his scratchy spot, right in the spot where his neck meets his shoulder, right in the middle, on both sides. I had him sticking his nose straight out and bobbing his head up and down. It was kind of adorable!
He needed a few reminders not to bite but perhaps he was just letting me know he noticed I was gone a while. We just rode in the outdoor (which was very wet from the night before) for about a half an hour and then trotted along the fenceline the long way back to the barn. He was really good considering the time off. I'm not sure how many lessons he was used in but Max's girl rode him twice and loved him but the second time she rode he wasn't as well behaved as the first time. She said he was like a big comfy couch and was very smooth. He fell to his knees (that makes fall #3) on one of the rides but she didn't get scared because he did it so smoothly. Shes a good rider, too so she has nice balance. She wasn't at the barn yesterday but I plan to talk to her about it and ask what they were doing when it happened. My two times were because he was distracted at the canter (looking at another horse instead of where he was going) and the other was when I asked him for a canter and he just took a weird step.
Anyway, he was good so I put him out in the field while I did his stall and buckets and some much needed tidying up around his stall front.
While I was in MN I was able to go visit the old farm. Banee looks so good for being 30 years old. She's in good weight and has a tail finally. She was always sadly lacking in a decent tail and we just don't put fake tails on Arabs. I got to ride her a little bit the first day. I was amazed at how small all the horses seem now that I'm used to my 16 hander. Even the arab gelding who I used to think was a giant seemed small! He's 15.2 but I used to think he was a monster! I didn't dress for riding so we just threw on a bareback pad and hacked around the arena for a bit. She has earned the spoiled life of a pasture pet and occasional lesson horse. She likes to be used and fussed over most of the time. She felt exactly the same as she always has but she was much easier to bring back to a walk than she was when I was showing her 10 years ago. My good friend Cari came out, too and took some pictures for me. It was wonderful to get to see Cari. We hadn't been to the farm together in probably 3 years! Banee wasn't the cleanest, but if you've ever had a white horse you know how hard it is to keep them white, especially when they enjoy a large pasture with a pond! Oh the Show Clean we went through when we were showing! If you go to the link of her name above you'll see how white she is in the last picture! She's in very good health other than a large melanoma in her left ear that started bleeding on the second day I went out. The bleeding stopped and she showed no signs of distress so I'm not worried. Her thyroid is a little larger than we'd like, but so far she's doing fine. I know we're on borrowed time with her. I've known her the longest (and closest) of any horse in my life and it will be a sad sad day when she leaves this earth. In the mean time I will and I try to enjoy her whenever I get to visit and be very thankful for all the lessons she taught me, even the ones I didn't learn well enough (ie patience!). The second day I also got on Debon for a bit. He hadn't been ridden yet this year and only a handfull of times since I worked on him steadily in 2006. He felt TINY but he was very well behaved and such a smart little guy. If he had been just a hand taller I would have considered buying him, but at 13.2 is a little small for my taste.
Have a great week!
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