Saturday, November 07, 2009

Horses

We didn't see any deer this morning. It was so windy that they probably just stayed bedded down. When I got back to the house, I decided to ride Snippy. He's been recovering from a severe white line, or separation, in all but one hoof. This was a result of his visit to a corn feeder over the mountain in late spring. His hooves are looking much better now, but we haven't been riding him. His trimmer, Dell Watkins (who, by the way is an excellent barefoot trimmer), loaned me some Boa Boots to use on him. You can see them in the picture; they're on his back feet. We rode around a little bit, and then I came back to the house and swapped the saddle and bridle over to Comanche. He's a lot taller than Snippy, but skinnier. Snippy is a quarter horse, Comanche is half Missouri Fox Trotter/half Spotted Saddle Horse. Comanche will never be as chunky as Snippy, just because of the difference in breed traits. He's not trained yet, but he saddles, cinches and takes the bit just fine. Except that he chews on the bit because he's not accustomed to how it feels. I climbed on and off a few times to give him some experience with me mounting and dismounting. He was unfazed. I turned him around in a circle, but could not get him to go forward. After that, I just let them stand tied to the hitching post while I would be around for the next few hours, working around the yard.

Garrison helped me hang the gate properly on the stall. That took a little while. We had to drill holes in the post and screw in the gate hangers. Then we worked on the fence a little.



You can see that Comanche has a bunch of cockleburs in his forelock again. I couldn't get them out.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the pictures of the horses. I'm up around Gainesville. I'm 52 and want to get a horse before I'm too old to ride. I'm getting the materials for my little barn together now. I always check your blog.

Roxann said...

You might want to consider getting a gaited horse, too. Comanche (the black and white one)is so smooth to ride, I should be able to keep doing it well into really old age. Thanks for keeping up with my blog :)

NitWit1 said...

I am past riding age, but still enjoy looking at different kinds of horses. I hated cockleburs as a kid, especially when I stepped on them

Roxann said...

I hope to be riding until I'm at least 80 ;) Especially since I had to wait until I was over 40 just to get my first horse, LOL.

Michele said...

Very nice pic of Comanche, Rox. He looks great saddled up. Simply BEAUTIFUL!!! I think you could train him yourself or get Gabby on him.

Roxann said...

Hi Michele,

I surely should get a discount if I send him out. He's already broken, he just doesn't know what to do with himself when I try to give him commands. I wish I had more time, then I would train him myself. Wish you were here to help ;)

Michele said...

I wish I was there to help too!
BTW, you lucked out on not seeing any deer (sorry Garrison '-) LOL I had a visual of you trying to gut and skin it... I don't want to help with that part!!!

I love keeping up with your site. It seems like you're not so blasted far away. It also takes me away from work for a quick but peaceful breather.