A Third Horse?

Yes, I have a third horse. Well actually it's Daniel's horse. One of the therapy horses has retired and we've agreed to give him a retirement home. Eventually he'll be in Canby when we move Cody and Axel there but for now he's living with a friend down in South Western Minnesota. He's got 3 other horse friends out there and it's a much better place to be a horse than at the farm with only cows. Of course it was an adventure getting him there. We spent the weekends prior getting the trailer up and running again after it's remodel. Then we hauled the horse, Haji, out to the farm for the night where he paced and worried most of the evening. He had been at the therapy barn for 19 years so moving to a cattle farm was a bit of a change for him. On Saturday morning we were going to bring him down to his new temporary home when a snow storm hit. Daniel and I ended up staying at the farm while Jeff drove Haji down in the snow and ice. They arrived safely and Jeff ended up just leaving the trailer down there for the time being. I guess he slid through many stops, yikes!

Someone is feeling good

Apparently a sore knee only means walking calmly is difficult. Bucking and jumping is exempt from the sore knee. I met N out at the barn last night for a ride before the darkness of winter took over. I walked Axel down the driveway and back and he seemed to be moving as well as the week prior so we gave it a shot. He actually moved out really well down the road. Due to our lack of riding lately he was working pretty diligently at ripping my arms out of their sockets. He had a tendency to abruptly stop and not want to move. I know Axel pretty well so normally I would haven't shied from telling him under no circumstances were we to stop but being as he has hardly been ridden the past couple years and it was cold and windy I was a little hesitant to use the same amount of convincing I normally would. He did give me one little crow hop on our way toward the neighbor's yard. Just about near the 1 mile mark everyone was walking calmly and forward so we asked them to turn around. And then the parade of tractors started and didn't stop. And Axel got a bee in his bonnet and started bucking. I more or less kept my seat but not until after I had hit my leg on the saddle horn. I asked him to stop and stand calmly and then I dismounted. Not something I would normally do but as I don't feel like it's appropriate to really make him work it was probably the safest thing to do. Cody was calm as could be while Axel bounced around behind him several times while I led him home. He was really moving out well at that point and it was just the occasional trip on the gravel that made him look the slightest bit off. I still don't think he's going to be doing any trail riding in his future though a calm ride on an isolated trail might be a little nicer than the busy road. I'll reserve the right to change my mind next spring when we get him another injection and the weather is nicer. Until then I think we'll have very few rides down the road if it's nice out, otherwise maybe some ground driving in the arena and some trick training if I get bored.