Boyz In The Shed

And I Need to Ride

The shed is finished. They Boys explored it like children with a new playhouse. It was really cute. Chance was first in since I lead him out to explore. Then Tucker joined him. Toby showed up later after I was back outside in the yard, so I didn't get him in the pictures. This now allows me to turn Tucker out in the sandy arena when there is too much mud in the paddocks. Hopefully, it will keep his shoes on during the bad weather. I still have to take the extra fence post out and somehow move the gate so I have an exit from the arena at that end. It will be a little work, but nothing I've not done before. As long as the posts are not set in concrete, I should be just fine handling it by myself.

Don't know what's up with me, but I am on a "not riding" roll. The weather is not helping one bit, but tonight the humidity is supposed to be lower so again, I may go out later and ride in the dark under the lights.

I am hoping it is simply vacation mode setting in and I just need to have nothing to do for a few days.

Tonight I participated in a Webinar hosted by my local saddle shop. Rick, the owner, has always been wonderfully involved in public service to area horsemen. I have a gorgeous wooden tackbox he donated as a prize to a dressage show. He has done a lot of things for the NJ Horse Park and fulfilled a long time dream by opening a huge new store in that area with a beautiful seminar/meeting room. It's a big far for me to go but he ran a number of educational programs on Thursdays last year--that's also my choir night. Now he has instituted online web sessions. I had to call in on my phone to hear the audio--not sure if that was how it was supposed to work, but it was great!

The vet did a presentation on horse parasites, with recommendations for worming programs. Interestingly enough, the new protocol is NOT to rotate worming products, but to use one with regular vet checks for fecal counts. Apparently, rotation actually helps the parasites develop resistance. If you stick with one product that works and change only when counts start to go up, you will have many more options over the years. As of 2003, the only product that showed no evidence of resistant problems was Ivermectin. But I've read some concerns about that more recently.

Another interesting bit of information was that tapeworms are now regarding as a serious concern for horses, while in years past, that was not so. Very interesting.

Below, a picture of the sandpit lake across the street. I wanted to catch the sunset, but by the time I got out there the light was fading. The brush and tangle is too hard to navigate easily from near my house. Next time I'll go down the road in the other direction where I can get a better shot. AT the bottom is just a picture of the sky from the paddock. Again, I was just a bit late to get the full effect of the color, but it was really pretty. Kind of in between storms.