Barn chores

For the past week I have had the luxury of seeing Sinwaan every day, twice a day. The prospect of this was very exciting to me. I should have known better. Barns are WORK :) - not to mention even more so in the winter. I am there from about 6:30-8 am and again about 7 pm for feeding. I also work full time so this means I have barely been home. And because there is so much to do out there I hardly see Sinwaan at all. Sure, one day I was able to pick the ice balls out of his feet and put on his blanket. I am sure he appreciated that. But not much more in the way of attention, grooming, etc.

Now that I am about ready to try riding again, however, it is much too cold - and the snow! 12 1/2" yesterday! More to come! Low tonight of 0 to -17. Yeah, riding is pretty much out right now.

A nice December day

This morning we (the family) decided to go out and visit Sinwaan. I took him some apples and thought maybe if I got lucky I could hop on and ride him bareback around the arena. So I put my helmet on in preparation. Sinwaan was easy to halter and enjoyed the first apple thoroughly. I led him out of his paddock and tried to get him up alongside a fence so I would have some height to get on him. (I have never been able to spring up onto a horse with no stirrup or mounting block). He would swing his butt away from me every time I tried. So Matt came out and tried to help me by standing on the other side of him. Sinwaan was wary of the Matt/Levi combination as Levi was up on Matt's shoulders.



After two attempts I was able to get on board but only for a second, Sinwaan jumped and I slid off the back. Oh well. I thought it better to give up for today. He has had too much vacation to behave without some round pen work and the proper tack. So I took off the leadrope and encouraged him to get some exercise. He took off and ran around the enclosure with his tail up over his back in a long springy extended trot. He even cleared a jump someone had set up out there. He snorted and blew and did some sliding stops and showed off.



I felt bad about his condition, he needs a extensive grooming as his mane is now all tangled in a couple places and he had a bramble in his tail. His hooves look ok for now. I was worried about needing to pull his shoes fairly soon but I think they'll be fine another couple weeks. It is supposed to be as bright, and maybe warmer tomorrow so I hope to get out there to at least give him a thorough grooming and try and reconnect.